TMNT 2012: Our Neighbour Totoro
by Sesshomarusama3
Summary: Strange things can happen to the most unlikley people, be they young or old, and it just so happens to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themselves that get caught up in this odd adventure, learning that you are never too old to still believe in the impossible. (I OWN NOTHING. IT'S BETTER THAN IT SOUNDS! ENJOY!)
1. Chapter 1: Soot Sprites

**TMNT 2012 Fanfic: Our Neighbor, Totoro**

**Part 1: The Soot Sprites**

Deep within the darkness of the sewers, underneath the grad buzzing city of New York, a large shadowy figure made their way cautiously, and silently through the damp tunnel maze, peering cautiously around the corners, and his sharp hearing listening intently for anything that could possibly be following or watching them from the shadows. He knew that no human with any sense at all would usually come down this far into the sewers, but with the precious company he held, he could not afford to let his guard down.

And after all, he was a ninja master. He would always be cautious. It was his very nature to be so.

Upon seeing that the coast was clear, he quickly picked up his pace, his feet making no sound as he swept through the sewers. His ears pricked up at the sound of several small feet treding lightly and rapidly behind him to keep up with his pace. He paused periodically, both to check for danger and to make sure his company had kept up with him, until he finally reached his destination; the turnstiles that led to the old, brightly lit, abandoned subway station.

Finally, home Sweet Home.

He let out a sigh of relief as he turned around to find that those same little figures had been able to keep up with him. So far, he had trained them well it seemed. "We are here, my sons," he said, moving out of the way to let his sons through the turnstiles.

"Alright!" they laughed in unison as the four, five-year-old mutant turtles pushed and shoved one another in order to get into the lair first, with the young hot headed turtle, Raphael, predictably winning. The eldest, Leonardo, was not far behind him, scolding him for cheating and pushing passed the younger two, Donatello and Michelangelo, too hard. However, Donatello, the third youngest and second oldest of the four, paid it no mind as he was far too fascinated by what he held in his small, three fingered hands to care about what his older brother had done; a gaming controller. He could use that for something in the furture.

Michelangelo, the youngest and smallest of the four brothers, only stuck his tongue out at Raphael before happily padding his way back to his father, reaching his hands upwards with a large grin on his face, wanting to be picked up. Master Splinter chuckled as he lifted his son up in one arm with little effort, despite how much he had grown, and made his way towards the pit in the centre of the lair, with the bag of supplies and gifts they had retrieved from their scavenger hunt earlier in his other hand.

As soon as he was in the pit, he sat down on the bench that served as a couch and set Michelangelo down next to his brothers, who were now crowding around their father, staring up at him eagerly. "Daddy, can we have our presents now?!" Michelangelo asked with a pleading, freckled grin. His brothers all nodded in agreement.

Splinter chuckled again, "Yes, my sons, you may have them. But only after you clean your room," he instructed.

Whilst his younger three brothers groaned, Leonardo smiled and bowed to his father, though he was still quite clumsy about it. "Come on, you guy'th, that room isthn't gunna clean isth'self!" he stated, his voice being slightly stuttered and slurred from his lack of front teeth, which he had only lost a week ago. Another sign that his sons were growing up far too fast.

As the boys made their way to the room that they shared on the other side of the lair, Raphael huffed in annoyance, "Daddy never said you were in charge, Leo!" he argued, folding his little arms across his chest.

"But I'm da oldest! I'm always'th gunna be in charge!" Leo argued back with a frown, prodding his younger brother in the chest to prove his point.

"I dunno 'bout you guys, but I just wanna get the surprises daddy brought with us!" Mikey piped up, hurrying in front of his brothers to get into their room quicker.

Donnie shook his head, "He says that now, but later, he's just gonna mess it up again," he sighed. Leo and Raph nodded in agreement. Out of the four, little Mikey was of course the messiest, with Raph coming in a close second, Donnie being third, and Leo being the neatest of them all. It was sometimes left to him to clean up after everyone else, which irritated the little turtle to no end.

As Mikey reached the door to their room, he grasped hold of the handle eagerly and tried to push it open. To his and his older brothers' surprise, it didn't open. Mikey pushed it harder, but it still would not budge. "This thing is stupid! It won't open!" he cried.

"Outta the way Mikey,_ I'll_ handle this!" Raph boasted as he shoved his younger brother out of the way and grasped the door handle with both hands. With all the strength he had in his little body, he pushed hard on the door and it finally swung open.

And before their very eyes, millions of tiny shadowy spectacles dispersed away from them, hiding within the many hidden cracks of their room or simply disappearing into thin air.

The four young turtles gasped collectively in horror. They shared a terrified glance with one another as they closed into themselves.

_What was that?_

They peered around their shared room, squinting intensely at every crack, every shadow and every open space for the black, bug-like creatures. Raph was especially frightened, though he would not dare show it in front of his brothers, for he had a colossal fear of insects. Mikey was simply afraid of monsters under his bed, which was why he had Donnie underneath his bunk to keep him safe. Donnie, though very curious as to what those tiny creatures could have possibly been, was also scared. When he had no knowledge of something and was afraid of it, he would try and find a book about it and research it, and once he knew everything about it, he would no longer be afraid. But whatever those creatures were, they were nothing he had ever even heard of, unless they were some kind of new species of bug. Leo was unnerved, but he would do anything to protect his brothers, even if it meant getting himself hurt.

He had done it before, and he would do it again…

The eerie silence still hung over the four young brothers as they skimmed their large eyes fearfully around the room, with Leo holding his arms out slightly in order to protect his younger brothers, should the creatures suddenly decide to attack them. Suddenly, Raph drew in a profound breath and roared into the room, scaring the living daylights out of his brothers and triggering them to shriek also. When the high pitched screaming stopped, nothing happened; nothing stirred, nothing was heard.

Silence fell upon the room once again.

"I think they're gone," Donnie whispered. The others nodded.

They nearly screamed again when a large shadow fell upon them. They spun around with a chorused gasp, only to find the familiar face of their father looking down at them with a mixture of confusion, slight irritation and concern. "What was all the screaming about?" he asked the four of them.

"Senthei, thomthing's running around in here!" Leo cried.

Splinter cocked a brow, "Running around, you say? Is it rats?"

"I don't think so," Donnie said, "and they're not bugs or mice either."

"They were black and they were all over the place!" Raph cried.

Splinter hummed curiously. "Well, let's have a look then, shall we?" He mused as he entered the boys' room. The young turtles were close behind him, Mikey clinging to his robe as their father bravely entered their seemingly haunted room. He sniffed the air and pricked his ears. He hummed thoughtfully and stroked his beard.

"So?" probed Donatello.

Splinter turned and looked down at them with a reassuring smile. "It was most likely some Soot Gremlins," he said. The looks he received were almost priceless. If he were not himself, he would have laughed.

"What do ya mean, 'Gremlin'ths'?" asked Leonardo, "like the oneth's in my book?"

Splinter nodded. "Or it could be ghosts," he smiled, "however, I have heard tell that ghosts do not tend to come out on nice days such as these." He began to walk purposefully to the door to their room, his young sons following curiously behind him.

"But, sensei, ghosts aren't real," Donatello proclaimed, tugging on his robe, "They're just a fig-a-ment of our immigration."

Splinter nearly laughed out loud at that, but cleared his throat to stop it, "I think you mean 'figment of our imagination', Donatello," he corrected. "Normally, you cannot see these ghosts, but it is said that every once in a long while, when you move from the daylight to the shadows, you can catch a brief glimpse of them."

They gazed up at him wonder. "Really, sensei?" Raphael asked.

"Really, Raphael," Splinter nodded dramatically.

With a big freckled smile, Michelangelo cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" His older brothers were quick to laugh and join in. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" they sang as they began to laugh together. Splinter let out a chuckle as he watched his sons. It was times like these that he felt what every father would feel at this stage; not wanting his precious children to grow up. However, as cruel as fate was, he knew that sometime his sons would have to grow up, and then, probably, leave their sewer home to find their own paths in life. Though they could never truly belong with the human world above, they may still choose to use their ninjitsu skills to travel away from this country and venture into different and unfamiliar lands…

However, until that day came, he would shelter and protect his sons for as long as he could.

And on top of that…

"Now, my sons," he spoke as their laughter finally subsided, "I believe it is time for us to begin cleaning the lair. We are ninjas after all…"

"…and ninjas leave no trace'th!" Leonardo finished eagerly, earning a roll of the eyes from Raphael.

Splinter chuckled, "Yes, Leonardo, that is true. Now, let us get started."

"Hai Sensei!" they replied in unison as thy followed their father out of the room.

However, when he heard a sudden flurry of movement behind him, Mikey spun around and glared at the wall, his baby blue eyes focused intensely at the large crack at the other side of the room.

His keen eyes just caught the sight of movement within the large crack.

Slowly and silently, he moved closer to the wall, his eyes never leaving the crack. He stopped merely an inch from the wall. After a silent moment of staring inside the crack, he slowly lifted his hand and poked the crack with his little green finger.

He nearly shrieked in terror as a cloud of black creatures burst from the crack and exploded in his face. He stood frozen, his eyes wide and his body trembling in fear as he watched the black cloud fly up into the ceiling and simply vanish, almost into thin air.

However, as Mikey recovered from his shock, he noticed a small black dot floating mindlessly in the air. It appeared to be almost intoxicated as it began to float to the ground. Mikey stared up at it in befuddlement as it came to eyelevel with him. Slowly, he raised his hands and without warning, he slapped his hands together, trapping the creature within his grip.

"I caught one!" Mikey squeaked as he stumbled out of the room, "Daddy, Leo, Raphie, Donnie look!" He darted straight out of the bedroom and when he found no one in the living room, he stumbled into the kitchen where he immediately collided with his red clad older brother, Raphael, and they both fell to the floor.

"**_OW_**! Mikey, what's the big idea?!" cried Raph angrily as he rubbed his aching head. Splinter, Donnie and Leo gathered around to see what all of the commotion was about.

Mikey, his hands still clasped together, struggled to his knees and looked up at his older brother, "Sorry Raphie! I was just gonna – huh?!" he gasped as he opened his hands to find nothing but black dust smothering his green palms, the small creature nowhere to be found. Had he squashed it?

"Mikey, your hands'th are filthy! What on earth did you do?" Leo asked firmly, putting his little hands on his hips in a scolding big brother fashion, making Splinter smile fondly.

Mikey looked up at them, "I caught a Soot Gremlin, but he got away! Or maybe I squished him…poor lil' guy." he said sadly.

"Ah! Mikey, your feet!" Donnie exclaimed, pointing at his younger brothers toes. Confused, Mikey peered down and gasped as he saw black powder-like dust coating his feet. He turned and saw he had somehow left a little trail of black footprints on the floor, leading their way to where he sat now on his knees. How had he not noticed?

Raph looked down at his own feet and found that they too were covered in black dust. "Mine are black too!" he exclaimed.

Leo and Donnie shared a look, and then lifted up their own feet. "Ours too!" they cried in unison.

Splinter's eyes widened in confusion as he knelt down to their level and inspected their hands and feet closley. They were pitch black, not a trace of any real dirt on them. His furry brows rose as he looked back at the trail of black foot prints that led to this spot, then back to his curious sons. A smile crept its way onto his face as an idea lit up in his mind. There had been a story that his father had told him oce when something like this had happened to him back when he was their age...

"It appears we have Soot Sprites in our home, my sons," he said as he rose to his feet, folding his arms behind his back as he looked down at the four of them, their eyes widening in surprise.

"Thoot Thprites, Thensthei?" Leonardo piped up.

"You mean the black puff balls?" Michelangelo asked.

"About this big?" Donatello held up his hand and made a small circle with his thumb and index finger as an example.

"And then they run away everywhere when you go in the room?!" Raphael cried, spreading is arms outwards.

Splinter held back another chuckle as he nodded. "Yes. They are said to live in old, empty places, and run all over the place, covering everthing witb dirt. I used to see them as well when I was your age. And now you have seen them as well," he paused to stroke his beard dramatically, "that is very interesting..."

"A-are they some kinda ghost, Sensei?" Michelangelo stuttered, drawing closer to Leonardo fearfully.

Splinter shook his head with a chuckle he just couldn't surpress this time as he lowered himself to kneel in front of his youngest son, putting a soft hand on his shoulder. "No, do not worry, Michelangelo. They are nothing to be feared. They are gentle creatures; if they decide you are nice people, they will not harm you, and before long, they will simply go away."

He watched his sons share uncertain glances with one another before all nodding in agreement. He smiled. "I bet they are out there somwhere, having a talk about whether or not they should move out."

They all stared at each other before looking up to the ceiling.

* * *

><p><em>"Those guys down there are cute as all living heck!" <em>

_"I wanna stay and cuddle them!"_

_"We can't risk it! They're dangerous! _

_"Look what that orange one did to Steve!"_

_"That was an accident!"_

_"Umm, I'm right here, guys. Still alive..."_

_"They are on to us! We can't stay and risk them finding...you know..."_

_"Oh yeah..._

_"Darn it."_

_"I was really starting to like this place too..."_

* * *

><p>The mutants looked to one another. "You hear that, guyth?" Leo said with a gapped toothed smile, "they're gonna move out!"<p>

Raph pouted and folded his arms. "But I don't want them to leave!" he argued.

"Me neither!" Donnie agreed, "I wanna inspect them! They seem like a once in a lifetime experience!"

"B-but, what if a great big one comes chasing after us in the dark?!" Mikey cried, grabbing Leo's arm and clinging to it like a life line.

Raph smirked, puffing out his chest in a smug manner. "So what? I'm not afraid!" he declared.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Fine then. You can both go to the bathroom by your-thelf in the middle of the night!" he said.

That brought out a laugh from Splinter as he shook his head at the banter his five-year old sons were currently having. "Come now boys, let's get to work. Who would like to start off with moping the floor?" he asked as he took out the mop from behind the fridge.

"I'll do it!" Mikey piped eagerly, waving his arm in the air frantically. His brothers laughed at his eagerness as they set off to perform their other chores, starting with cleaning their hands and feet.

* * *

><p>Before long, with the help of the four, fast moving and nearly untrackable mutant turtles, the lair had been cleaned from top to bottom, including that large stoarge area that Donatello insisted on hording his scientific discoveries from the sewers, such as washed out text books and the like. They had even managed to clean their rooms in the process, which pleased Splinter to know that he would not have to scold them further over the matter.<p>

Before the family sat down to have dinner, Splinter asked his two eldest sons to take out the garbage, to which they readily agreed, and they both grabbed the large back, hauling it out theough the turnstiles and off into the tunnles together, arguing about whose turn it was to watch the T.V after dinner. Splinter still held his worries over his sons wandering off into the tunnels on their own, but of course, as a father of four rowdy boys, he would be. But he trusted Leonardo and Raphael could find their way back with no trouble. Just so long as they didn't fight over something and hurt each other before they got back.

Leo and Raph tugged the heavy bad as much as they could with what strength they possessed in their little bodies as they walked through the tunnels. They turned into another tunnel opening which led into an open spaced pit, littered with past garbage bags that the two had hauled together before. With a heave, they threw the black bag into the pile alongside the other bagsm dusting their hands off in satisfaction.

Suddenly, a chilling wind, gentle but nonetheless cold, swept over them, stopping them both intheir tracks. They bothe looked upwards, trying to find the source of the wind. They were underground, how could wind possibly get down here?

Unless Mikey was right, and there really _was_ a ghost down there...

A powerful gust of wind suddenly blew them right off their feet, sending them flying into the pit before landing on their shells. The garbage around them was lifted off the ground around them and carried into the air, the wind spiralling them into a tornado of trash above their heads. His eyes wide and terrified, Raph scrambled on his hands and knees to Leo's side, clinging on to him as he stared up in fear at the uncanny spectacle above them. Leo gripped him back, not once tearing his eyes away from the tornado above them. They dared not move, for the swirling current of wind was keeping them trapped in place. They held each other tighter, squeezing their eyes shut in fear as their heart beat rapidly. What was going on? They cried out for their sensei to come and save them, but their voices were drowned out by the sound of the howling wind that seemed to sound like a wild beast, roaring out into the night as it hunted its next prey.

Moments passed, and the wind suddenly died down, dropping the trash to the ground around the two boys with a series of thuds. All was then eerily silent.

Raph and Leo shared a look.

Then they screamed with all their might as they scrambled to their feet, climbing up the edge of the pit and running back to the lair, not stopping once until they had leapt over the turnstiles, and when Splinter heard their screams echoing off the sewer walls and came rushing into the main room, he was nearly knocked off his feet when they charged into him like freight trains.

* * *

><p>A storm raged on in the city of New York above the sewers, winds howling and blasting through trees and stalls of any kind as the rain plummeted upon the hard ground, dampening the earth and any human unlucky enough to be caught in such a storm. Hpwever, the inhsbitants of the abandoned subway station beneath the surface were lucky enough that the sewers had not yet flooded their home, and were still very warm and dry, but the power had gone out, leaving the mutant family in the darkness, with nothing but candlelights surrounding them as the storm raged on.<p>

The four turtle boys and their rat sensei sat huddled together in the pit, Splinter wrapping his arms arround Donie and Mikey a they clung to him. Raph and Leo were standing 'guard' in front of them, though Leo had subconsciously shuffled closer to Splinter.

"Sensei, I think this place is too old," Mikey whimpered fearfully, "I think it's gonna fall down."

"That's impossible, Mikey," Donnie reassured, "It's only a bit of wind and rain."

"Your brother is right, Michelangelo," Splinter said, holding Mikey and Donnie closer, "The storm will not harm you."

"Yeah! This stupid storm ain't gonna come in here and hurt ya, Mikey!" Raph said, planting his hands on his hips and giving his younger brother a grin, "Not with me here! I ain't afraid of no storm!"

The lair suddenly seemed to quake as a very strong gust of wind hit. Raph tensed, his tough demenour shattering as he flinched, his eyes going wide and fearful as the sound of the howling wind nearly shattered their eardrums. Mikey and Donnie let out a cry of fear as they clung on tighter to Splinter. Leo latched onto him also, and Splinter wrapped his arms around his three sons.

The sounds of screeching winds and rain suddenly began to die down, leaving the city and the sewer home in a blanket of silence. No one moved or spoke for a long time as the family held their breaths.

Something fell and clattered in the tunnles, making Raphael gasp as he finally shuffled over to his brothers, letting Leo drape his arm over his shoulder and holding him close. Silence befell the lair once again.

Suddenly, Mikey let out a loud, loud laugh that nearly scared his older brothers right out of their shells; even making Splinter's fur stand on end slightly. "Everyone try laughing," Mikey piped up, "Daddy told me that if I laugh at the things that I'm a-scared of, they'll go away! Right, Sensei?"

Splinter chuckled down at his youngest son. "Yes, of course Michelangelo."

It was then that Leo began to laugh along, shortly followed by Donnie. Raph stared at the three in puzzlment. "I'm not scared at all!" he pouted. He glanced up to find Splinter staring down at him with a smile and a raised brow. Raph pouted harder. "What? I'm not scared!"

Without warning, Splinter gathered Raph in his arms and began to tickle him under his arms. He shrieked in laughter, though he tried to wriggle his way out of his fathers' tickle attack, but to no avail as his laughter only weakened him. The other three then turned onto each other, tickling each other until they could barely breathe. Soon, the lair was filled with laughter from four brothers, no longer afraid of the storms that raged on outside their happy home.

However, unbeknownst to them as they laughed their fears away, a small, black trail of tiny bug-like creatures silently flew out from the sewer home, trvelling through the dojo doors and out through the grate, floating high into the air as they travelled above the brightly lit city, and out into the unknown... 

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hi there! This is somethi i've wanted to do for a while! And to those who read my Wizard of Oz fic, don't worry, I'm gonna finish it! Just suffering from writer's block right now!**

**I OWN NOTHING!**

**Enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Forest Spirit

** Part 2: The Forest Spirit**

_10 Years later..._

"Raph! Raph, get up! Training in five, okay?!" Leonardo called, knocking hard onto Raphael's bedroom door. He was answered by a muffled groan, and a halfhearted "okay", indicating that the red turtle was not going to get up any time soon. Leo rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. Honestly, they were fifteen now, not five. Raphael had to learn that they had responsibilities to uphold now. With the city they lived in now infested with Alien Kraang droids and dangerous mutants, not to mention the stupid amount of mutagen canisters still lost within the city, they needed to be at the top of their game, meaning they still needed to train, meaning Raph had to get up right now.

It was then that his youngest brother, Michelangelo, came stumbling out of his room, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Mornin' Leo," he greeted in a slight slur, "Raph not gettin' up yet?"

Leo sighed as he folded his arms over his chest. "Nope. Not moving a inch." Mikey sighed next to him as he too rolled his eyes. It was then that an idea popped into his head. Grinning, he turned to where Mikey stood on his right. "Mikey, you know the drill."

Mikey grinned back and nodded, and with an almighty kick, he swung the door open, sprinted into Raph's room and leapt on top of him as he lay curled up on his bed. "HEY, WAKE _**UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP**_!" he called loudly, bouncing ligtly up and down on his brother, laughing all the while.

Raph growled loudly as Mikey continued to bounce on him, his temper rising with each passing second. Finally, he errupted, "_GET OFFA ME_!", and he shoved Mikey off his shell, sending both turtles rolling to the floor in a tangle of limbs and blankets. "What're you _doing_?!" he yelled.

Mikey only continued to grin up at him, "Time for training dude! Can't go without you, man!" he said simply, before struggling to his feet and patting Raph on the head and running out the door.

Raph stood up, untangling himself from his blankets as he folded his arms and glared at his older brother. "Did you have to make him do that?" he growled testily.

Leo only shrugged with a grin. "You know how he is, Raph" he replied with a wave of his hand as he turned and headed for the turnstiles to meet Donatello and Michelangelo. Raph rolled his eyes. Leo was right; out of all the brothers, Mikey was probably the only one who stayed the same no matter how old they got. He would always be the same hyper-active, naive, goofball turtle they all knew and loved. No one could change that; Mikey would always be Mikey.

Unless he beat some sense into him. Which sounded very, _very_ appealing in that moment as a grin covered his face.

He got to his feet, still wearing the grin as e walked towards the dojo. "Hey, Mikey," he called, "I gotta tell you something..."

* * *

><p>"<em><strong>BOOYAKASHA<strong>_!" Michelangelo cried out jubilantly, his voice echoing and rebounding off the walls of the sewers as he bounded on his skateboard and whizzed past various large piles of garbage and sewage puddles, all the while never slipping his hold of his precious cargo held high in his hand. Although Mikey was well aware that his cargo was very important and should not under any circumstances be dropped or squashed, the orange clad teenage turtle could not help but have a little fun on his way back to their lair; he was after all, the so-called "wild one" out of the four brothers that lived down here. Taking care not to drop the boxes he held, he skidded down the steps, over the turnstiles, and into the lair, coming to a stop once he hit the common area. "Dudes, the Great Michelangelo has returned!" he announced happily.

The three other turtle heads popped out from the kitchen and walked over to their little brother, who held out the pizza boxes with a wide grin on his face. That alone put them on the edge, for that smile in particular meant that he had done something he knew he shouldn't have. "You didn't eat any, right Mikey?" Raphael, inquired the younger turtle, glaring at him suspiciously.

Mikey shrunk backwards slightly, still grinning. "Nah, I didn't eat any! What kind of little brother would I be if I didn't share any of this delicious pizza with my bestest big brothers in the whole world?" he replied innocently, batting his large blue eyes dramatically.

Raph rolled his eyes and took the pizza boxes from his younger brother. Mikey grinned deviously. '_That's what you get for punching me earlier, Raphie,_' he thought evilly. Did his brother really think that he would get away with hitting him before they went for training? No way!

As the turtle brothers made their way to the kitchen to feast on their pizza, Mikey paused and ran back to collect his skateboard from the pit, quietly cackling evilly at the thought of Raph's pizza surprise. As he bent down to pick it up, a small glowing object entered his vision from the bench. He looked up to find the source of the glow. His eyes scanned the lair until he found it; an acorn? Confusion clouding his features, he walked over to the small object, crouched down and picked it up with his large, green hand, rolling it around between his three fingers. How did an acorn get down in the sewers? He must have picked it up by accident somehow after he picked up the pizzas with April. And then again, a lot of things fell down here, even dollar bills every now and then.

Another small object dropped down in front of him, interrupting his thoughts as he looked up from his inspection of the acorn still in his hand. He looked around again and before long, his eyes set upon yet another small acorn, still rolling on the floor from its decent. He stepped over to it and picked it up, raising a brow. Where were these things coming from?

Standing up to his full height, he scratched his head in confusion. He was about to shrug it off and go to the kitchen before his brothers could eat without him when another sound caught his attention once again. Giving in to his childlike curiosity (and ignoring his stomach, whose loud growling could rival to that of a running tractors') he walked back to the entrance of the lair, only to find more acorns littered across the floor. They lay one in front of the other, almost in a straight line, leading out of the lair and into the sewers like a trail of little breadcrumbs. Picking them up with a large grin as he went along, Mikey followed the strange trail of acorns deeper into the sewers.

In the very back of his mind, he felt that he was playing right into some sort of trap. However, his pure confusion and curiosity conquered his common sense as he continued to follow the trail, deeper and deeper into the dark sewers.

His brothers wouldn't mind if he was gone for a little while, would they? After all, he didn't want to be there when Raph discovered his little prank. He shuddered at the thought of what Raph would do to him...

By the time the trail of acorns had abruptly come to an end, the young orange clad turtles' hands were full of acorns of different sizes, shapes and colours. He examined his prizes with a large freckled grin before attempting to stuff them all into his belt pockets. Maybe they could use these to grow another tree in the lair or something. He was sure Sensei wouldn't mind having another tree in their home.

Something rustled amongst the garbage of the sewers.

His ninja instincts instantaneously kicked in as Mikey dropped the acorns, letting them crackle and roll along the cold concrete as he grabbed his nunchaku from his belt, assuming a battle stance as he waited for whatever made the sound to show itself. He should have known it was a trap of some sort.

A figure slowly came out of the shadows.

Only the whites of Mikey's eyes could be seen as he prepared himself.

As the figure finally stepped out from its hiding place, Mikey blinked twice, nearly dropping his nunchaku in astonishment at what he saw.

A small, white rabbit looking creature, minus the front limbs, walked calmly from out of the shadows. It had large black eyes, and small almost bird-like feet. It seemed to not even acknowledge Michelangelo's presence as it walked right passed his stunned form. Mikey watched it in complete awe as it passed by, realizing that in its wake, it produced flowers and emerald green grass within the concrete floors of the tunnel. Mikey's eyes grew wide and he gasped in wonder. This must be one of those magical creatures that Sensei read to them about when they were younger; a forest spirit perhaps? But what was one of those things doing in the sewers of New York?

Better yet, why did such a thing like that even exist in the first place?

Brushing those thoughts aside for a moment, Mikey put away his nunchaku decided to follow the strange spirit creature. He could bring it back to the lair and show his brothers and his Sensei that spirits did in fact exist. Then he could rub it in Donnie's face. That would show him who the smart one was!

As Mikey wordlessly followed the tiny spirit deeper into the sewers, it finally seemed to realize that it was being trailed as it looked back at the young turtle's freckled, grinning green face. Suddenly, the spirit made a small jump and vanished into thin air, leaving Mikey to stare at the spot it once was in complete shock as he stopped dead in his tracks. He looked around in the darkness to see if it had somehow teleported elsewhere, but to no avail.

Sighing in disappointment, he was about to give up and retrace his steps back to the lair, when something white entered his vision. He turned and spotted the spirit once again. It had somehow teleported farther into the tunnels. "Ah HA!" Mikey exclaimed ecstatically, "There you are!"

The spirit stopped in its tracks at Mikey's excited outburst and turned to stare at him. That is, it stopped to stare at him for not even a millisecond before making a panicked scramble into the tunnels when Mikey ran straight for him.

"Wait! Don't run away little fella! I'm not gonna hurt ya! I just wanna pet you! Then take you to my brothers and rub it in Donnie's face that you actually exist!" Mikey called out to the retreating form of the small spirit which still left a trail of greenery in its wake as it ran. For a small creature, it sure was as fast as shell!

But naturally, as a ninja, Mikey was faster!

Just before he could catch it however, the spirit turned abruptly to the right and made a dash into one of the small cracks of the tunnel walls. Mikey slowed to a stop as he bent over to peer into the dark hole. His acute eyesight could just make out the shape of the creature as it moved quickly in the darkness. He decided to wait for it to come out as he sat cross-legged in front of the hole, his hands placed in-between his legs and his head leaning forward and his eyes wide open and unblinking. Normally, he wouldn't be able to sit still for long periods of time, but not this time, for he was determined to catch this spirit creature red-handed.

Or in his case, green handed…

He sat still and patiently waited.

And waited.

And _waited_...

He let out a long sigh. Maybe it had vanished again or something?

Crackling noises to his left caught his attention as he sharply turned. Oh curse his short attention span –

His blue eyes grew wide as saucers as he gazed at not one, but two rabbit looking creatures. There was the little white one he had followed before, but it was hiding behind a much larger, blue rabbit creature, this one having arms unlike its smaller cohort and carrying a sack of what appeared to be acorns on its back with a small hole in it.

So THAT'S where the trail of acorns came from! And now there were TWO of them!

Oh, Donnie was going to **_LOVE_** this!

Mikey grinned as he stood up, rushing forward to catch them. But before Mikey could grasp even one of them, the spirits made a break for another tunnel, dropping more acorns along the way. "Hey! Wait!" he cried, standing up and running after them, "get back here! I'm not gonna hurt you! Honest!"

It was only then that he realized something about the tunnels; he didn't recognize any of them at all. None of the graffiti marks were at all familiar to him, and he couldn't see any of the markings he and his brothers made whenever they explored the tunnels; whenever they explored any part of the sewers they weren't familiar with, they would put a special mark somewhere visible, so they would know how far from the lair they were, or that whenever they were lost, seeing the marks would eventually lead them back home.

Mikey couldn't see any of them as he ran. Meaning he must be farther from the lair than he thought. However, deciding it was too late to turn back now despite that fact, he continued his pursuit on the little creatures. He could always call the guys later if he lost his way completley.

However, as the spirits then took a turn into yet another tunnel, with Mikey close behind them, he was unaware that as he made that sharp turn, his T-phone had slipped from his belt and dropped to the floor.

As Mikey ran, he realized that this tunnel sloped upwards slightly, and was teeming with green life, assortments of flowers and grasses sprouting everywhere. The walls were no longer even metal; it was made of pure, rich earth. It was just like a giant rabbit hole! Just where did this tunnel lead to? To Central Park maybe?

As he finally reached the end of the tunnel, Mikey burst through a thick bush, running out of the darkness of the sewers… and instantly had to shield his eyes with his hand as the brightness of the sunlight nearly blinded him –

Wait, sunlight?

He was outside now? In pure daylight?!

Not only that, but he lost sight of the spirits.

Great.

After adjusting his eyes to the light, Michelangelo stopped for a moment to take in his surroundings. His eyes flew open as he realized that he was not in Central Park. In fact, he may not have even been in New York anymore. He thought he may have been in a forest of some kind, for he was stood upon the large roots of a colossal tree that seemed to stretch up far into the sky, its luscious green leaves shielding him from the intense heat of the afternoon as they shifted slightly in the soft, cooling breeze.

He stared around him in utter awe. Just where was he exactly? Oh man, Master Splinter was going to kill him if he didn't get back home soon. Did he or his brothers even know he was gone? What if –

His thoughts were cut short when he caught sight of a gap within the roots of the tree. It was small, but it was large enough for him to easily fit through. Gathering some power into his legs, he easily bounded over to the gap and peered inside. He caught sight of a couple of acorns that lay on a mushroom deeper down in the hole. "Hmm… must've been left from one of those spirits. So this is where they went!" he said excitedly. As he leaned over to grab the acorns, he lost his balance and slipped over the edge. "Oh jeez!" he cried as he fell head first into the gap.

**_"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH_**!"

He rolled and tumbled down the hole, scraping his arms and legs on many stray twigs and stones as he fell. With a soft thud, Mikey unceremoniously fell out of the hole and landed flat on his face onto soft grass. "Ugh…some ninja I am. Lost my balance? Sheesh!" he muttered under his breath as he rubbed his head and now very sore arms and legs. "Well, at least Raph or Leo didn't see that – woah…"

He looked up and around his surroundings once more. It seemed he had landed in another beautiful forest – oh shell, all forest looked the same to him!

He stood up and looked around at the beautiful and extraordinary plant life that surrounded him, watching in wonder at the countless butterflies that fluttered in and out of flowers silently and elegantly. He had lived in the undergrounds of an urban jungle for fifteen years, and he had always wanted to see the real flowers and plants that Donnie had always shown the boys in his text books. They had been beautiful then, but they were nothing compared to the real thing.

"Wow…if only the guys where here to see this!" Mikey said, grinning to himself at his beautiful discovery. He closed his eyes took in a deep breath, and then let it out in a content and heavy sigh. It was so peaceful, so beautiful. Maybe he could stay here forever. Or maybe he could go back and bring his family here to this paradise. He was sure they would love that. No more Shredder, no more mutants, no more alien robots...what a life that would be...

Mikey nearly jumped out of his scaly green skin when a loud snore rang loud through air, coming from his right. He spun around only to find a large lump of grey fur that rested upon a flower bed.

Grey fur, that was _moving_.

Cautiously, he silently approached the large lump of fur. After waiting for a moment to see if it was safe, he hesitantly reached out and stroked the lump of fur, its fuzzy exterior soft and smooth to his three fingered touch, which made him smile. It felt like a giant kitty.

The lump suddenly jostled, causing Mikey to instinctively pull his hand away. As the lump relaxed once more, Mikey could not help but giggle slightly, and then he proceeded to continuously poke the lump. It jostled again, this time the tail-like appendage brushing against his freckled green face. Mikey laughed out loud and hugged the lump of fur, nuzzling against it like a giant teddy bear.

What he didn't expect was for the lump to suddenly pull him off the ground and lift into the air. He let out a panicked yelp before releasing the furry lump and falling instead onto a furry white…stomach?

Mikey looked up to realize that he lay atop of very, very large rabbit-like creature – almost ten times his size, almost as big as Splinter! It was a larger, grey version of the smaller spirits he had been chasing beforehand, with large furry paws, long whiskers that seemed to twitch subconciously, and long pointed furry ears.

And it seemed to be fast asleep.

Mikey wore a large grin upon his face and gasped in wonder at the creature he sat upon, scooting closer to the creatures' large whiskered face. This was beyond amazing! What would Donnie say if he could see this? Better yet, what would everyone say if they saw this?! He could just see their faces now!

He froze as the creature's snoring suddenly stopped, and its large eyes slowly cracked open. It stared directly at him for a time, at Mikey felt a chill run down his spine. He hadn't actually thought about whether or not this creature was dangerous. What if it decided to eat him for waking it up? However, Mikey's fears were put to rest as it slowly closing its eyes again, and it resumed its loud snoring, clearly having fallen back to sleep. Gosh, it was a heavier sleeper than even Raph!

Mikey giggled yet again as he scooted even closer to the creatures face. Out of interest, he decided to play with its nose, simply to see if it would do the same thing Splinter did when they played with his nose when he was asleep when they were younger. It twitched somewhat, causing Mikey to further poke at its nose just for fun. This resulted in the creature giving an all mighty sneeze that blew Mikey all the way to the other side of the flower bed. "Hahahaha! Whoa! And I thought Splinter was weird with his nose nuggets!" Mikey laughed, though still slightly winded from landing on his shell. Nonetheless, he climbed back onto the creatures belly, and once again shuffled his way back to its face.

This time, the creatures' eyes opened all the way as it inspected the small, green orange clad creature that sat upon him. "What the heck are you?" Mikey asked curiously, not actually sure if it could understand him, "Are you one of those forest spirits my Sensei told us about as kids? What were they called again? Umm…oh, a Ko – Kodama or something?"

In response, much to the young turtles' surprise, was a loud, almost ear piercing roar: "Toooh – toooh – **_ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO_**!"

Mikey simply laughed, unfazed by the creature's so called fearsome and released his own mighty growl: "_**RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH**_! Hahahaha!" he laughed, watching as the creature's eyes grew wide with slight shock at his roar. "Dude! That was awesome!" he luaghed, "So your name's 'Roar'? That's a weird name. How about 'The Rabbinator'? I think that's a whole lot cooler! "

The creature once again repeated its growl, only this time, Mikey was able to grasp the message.

"Toh…toh…Totoro? Totoro?! Is that your name?" Mikey asked, his grin never leaving his face, and it only widened as the creature gave an unmistakable nod. "Haha! Yep! That's your name alright!" Mikey relaxed his position and lay flat on his plastron on Totoro's stomach, his head resting on his crossed arms. "Totoro huh? Man, I wish my brothers were here to see you…" He whispered.

Mikey and Totor stared at each other for some time, both gazing at each other in wonder. Totoro had never seen a young creature such as this little turtle before, and he was quite interesting. He seemed to behave like those other strange beings that populated the earth. What were they called again? Humans? Well, this little one looked nothing like them, but he sure behaved like them. So odd.

As Totoro released a long, jaw splitting yawn and began to fall back to sleep, Mikey himself began to feel very tired as he rubbed his eyes and yawned himself. He hadn't realized just how active he had been that day; he had ran to the pizza place with April, had beaten the living snot out of some Purple Dragons on his way home, and spent nearly an hour chasing those smaller spirits through the sewers. No wonder he felt so worn out…

…maybe…a small nap…wouldn't hurt…

Before Michelangelo knew it, as he lay upon Totoro's large furry chest, combined with the beasts' gentle snoring, the quiet birdsong and the soft breeze, he was lulled into a deep and peaceful sleep. 

* * *

><p>"Mikey! Come on, we're leaving now!" Leonardo called into his younger brothers' bedroom, geared up for their evening patrol. For some odd reason, no one had seen or even heard their youngest brother for hours after he had delivered the pizzas. And that was saying something. Even their Sensei had noted on how quiet it was in the Lair. Leo supposed he was probably plugged into his T-phone playing that "Mine Field" game again, but even so, he ought to have at least heard his victory cry, "Booyakasha!" in there somewhere. In fact, now that he thought of it, he didn't even come to eat his pizza.<p>

That fact alone was very unsettling.

"Mikey?" Leo tried again after receiving no answer. He rolled his eyes and sighed as he opened the door and stepped into the room. His brow creased in confusion when he saw no orange clad turtle sat on his bed, or anywhere in the chaos anyone dared to call a bedroom. "Huh…that's weird," the blue clad turtle muttered to himself as he left the room and went to find his remaining two brothers. He found them hunched over a large map of the city in Donatello's lab, plotting on where to patrol that night. Upon hearing him entering, they both lifted their heads.

"Hey, have you guys seen Mikey?" Leo asked.

Donnie and Raph shrugged and shook their heads in unison. "Nope. Haven't seen him since he came back with the pizza…which I still need to kill him for! I knew he ate my pizza! That smug little liar!" Raph grunted, pounding his right fist hard into the palm of his left hand.

Donnie rolled his eyes a Raph's remark and looked back to his eldest brother. "I haven't seen him either, Leo," he said, "I was beginning to wonder why it was so quiet around here. Is he in his room or something?"

"I just checked. He's not in there."

"Hmm… maybe he went skateboarding again?"

"He would have at least told us though, wouldn't he?"

"…Point taken."

It was by this point that the brothers began to feel slightly concerned. Mikey never left the lair without permission, or without telling them where he was going; he didn't ask for permission but at least they knew where he was going.

"Ah great!" Raph growled, "If that little shell-brains' got himself lost or something, when I get my hands on him I'm gonna – "

"Raph, save the empty threats for later, right now, we gotta find Mikey before Master Splinter finds out he's gone again." Leo said as he, Raph and Donnie left the lab and ran out of the lair in search of their younger brother. However, as they ran deeper through the sewers, with still no sign of Mikey, their worries began to grow.

"Mikey!" Leo called, "Mikey! Where are you?!"

"Mikey?! Mikey, you hear me? Answer me!" Donnie shouted.

"MIKEY! You better not be playing any of your dumb pranks or I'm gonna beat the green offa you, then I'm gonna beat you some more for eating my PIZZA!" Raph bellowed. Though his tone of voice said otherwise, Raph was in reality very worried about the orange clad turtle. They had been running through tunnels that even they didn't recognize for far too long. If he had passed through here, what was Mikey even doing? He would never explore any unknown parts of the sewers without the others with him…

"Okay, let's try his T-phone" Leo said as he pulled out his own T-phone from his belt, dilled Mikey's number and waited for Mikey to respond. The other brothers gathered around him anxiously in silence.

Suddenly the silence was shattered by the ringing of a cell phone. The turtles turned sharply.

That was Mikey's ringtone.

Leo quickly ran in the direction the ringtone was coming from. Soon, Leo's panicked voice echoed through the empty tunnels, "It's Mikey's T-phone!" he called.

Donnie and Raph rushed to their leaders' side to find him holding their brothers' phone that he found lying on the ground, broken and abandoned. Their eyes grew wide in panic. What happened? Where the shell was their baby brother?!

"Mikey! Mikey, where are you buddy?!" Raph called out, panic now replacing his frustration as he scanned the tunnels. Leo and Donnie did the same, searching the area frantically for any clues of their little brothers' whereabouts.

Mikey never left his T-Phone; it was their only means of communication. Not only that, but they had found it broken in tunnels they had never explored before. They feared the worst.

It was after half an hour of relentless searching that Donnie spotted a large crack in the wall, close to where Leo found Mikey's T-phone, and just large enough for them to fit through. It was so dark he could have missed it, but there was also a trail of large, circular footprints. "Hey guys! Over here! I think he might have gone through this crack in the wall here!"

"What? Are you sure?!" Raph asked, trying to keep his voice even to hide his worry, though he was failing.

Donnie nodded. "No doubt about it! These have gotta be his footprints!"

"Well, let's not waste anymore time! Let's move!" Leo commanded and ran into the tunnel, with Donnie and Raph close behind him.

"Hey, why are there flowers and grass down here?" Raph asked as they ran, looking around him to find different types of small flowers and greenery covering the dirt walls and floor of the tunnel.

"Beats me" replied Leo, who just as confused as Raph. "How could flowers grow in the New York sewers? In fact, it kinda looks like a rabbits' burrow or something."

"Well, technically" Donnie speculated, "It could be possible to grow certain types of plant life in environments like this. It all depends on the natural lighting as well as the amount of soil or compost that's – Oh my gosh!" Donnie cut his explanation short as all three turtles froze in their tracks and gasped in shock.

They had finally found Mikey, but he was lying on his side, his shell facing them. He was not moving, and none of them could tell if he was even breathing.

"MIKEY!" they all cried in unison as they ran over to his prone form. The kneeled over their younger brother as Donnie looked him over, checking his pulse and scanned for any possible injuries. Agter a few silent moments, he gave a heavy sigh of relief. "It's alright," he said, "he's still breathing, and he doesn't seem to have any injuries."

The other turtles sighed in relief also, but the news was not enough to completely put away their fears. Why was he unconscious in a tunnel none of them even recognized?

"Mikey? Mikey, wake up!" Leo cried as he shook Mikey semi roughly.

Mikey stirred and mumbled something about pizza under his breath.

The brothers stared at him in disbelief.

"He's…just…asleep?!" Raph growled as he grabbed Mikey by his shoulders and shook him roughly and bellowed, "HEY SHELL-BRAIN! WAKE UP!"

Mikey's eyes shot open as he jumped awake with a gasp. As he sat up and rubbed his eyes wearily, he looked around him to find his brothers staring at him with a mixture of relief and annoyance. "Mmmf…huh? Oh, hey guys, 'sup?" Mikey said, his words slurred together due to his drowsiness.

"Don't you "'sup" us Mikey!" Leo scolded, folding his arms in disapproval. "You had us worried sick! You've been gone for hours! And what do you think you're doing, running around in the tunnels by yourself and then sleeping in a pit?!"

It was then that Mikey, now fully awake, became fully aware of what had happened and where he was. His eyes snapped open and he looked around him. "Totoro?" he muttered.

"Totoro?" the older turtles asked in unison.

Mikey stood up and spun around on the spot in confusion. "Wha - ? Where's Totoro?"

Leo shared a confused glance with his siblings, who in reply simply shrugged their shoulders as they too stood up. "Maybe you were dreaming, Mikey" he said.

"Or maybe you have a fever," Donnie speculated, placing his hand on Mikey's forehead to check his temperature. "It's possible you could have caught a cold from sleeping in the dirt for so long, judging by the fact that – "

"– or you're just stupid!" Raph interrupted harshly, pushing past Donnie and Leo to smack Mikey upside the head.

"Oww! No, I don't have a fever, and I'm NOT stupid!" Mikey cried, rubbing the back of his head. "I saw a giant rabbit looking spirit creature thing called Totoro!"

"Totoro? You mean, like a Kodama, like the ones Master Splinter told us about when we were little?" Leo asked, to which Mikey nodded vigorously.

"Yeah, but he called himself Totoro! He was, like, furry, and huge and he looked like a giant mutant rabbit, only he wasn't, he was a forest spirit – oh, and there were also little tiny versions of him that were small and carrying acorns! I saw them after I dropped off the pizza and I chased them down so I could show them to you guys, so I followed them through this tunnel and fell through this hole in a giant tree in the middle of nowhere, and then I saw Totoro, but he kept falling asleep, and I think I fell asleep on him or something 'cus – "

"Mikey! Jeez, slow the heck down, bro!" Raph said, cutting off Mikey's breathless and almost incomprehensible explanation by jamming his hand over his mouth. "We have no idea what you're talking about, and even if we did…" he shared a glance with Donnie and Leo, "…I doubt we'd even believe you."

Mikey swiped Raph's hand away from his mouth and huffed in exasperation, "Cut it out! I'm not kidding! I really DID see Totoro!" he insisted.

As his older brothers shared another skeptical look with one another, Mikey sighed and hung his head in defeat. Why did nobody ever take him seriously? First it was the alien brain thing inside a robot body, and now this? It actually stunned him that they didn't believe him, what with everything they have dealt with so far; the Kraang, mutants, Ninjas in New York, Robot ninjas, and they can't believe in forest spirits in the sewers? If could only he could somehow prove it to them. The acorns wouldn't help at all, so what could he possibly use to–?

"Wait, wait! I've got it!" he exclaimed, and idea finally hitting him, "guys! Follow me! I'll show you where I found him!" Before the brothers could object, Mikey had taken off further down into the tunnel.

"Hey! Mikey, wait up!" Leo called after his youngest brother as he, Raph and Donnie ran after him down the tunnel.

Behind him, he heard Raph grumble, "Uggh, this better be good!"

"Cool it, Raph. He's probably just delusional or something from sleeping in a tunnel for too long." Donnie joked.

As they finally reached the end of the tunnel, the boys burst through a thick bush…only to find themselves standing in the middle of Central Park, filled with its familiar benches, concrete sidewalks and short neatly trimmed trees…but no sign of the great tree that Mikey had stood upon earlier.

Mikey stood there, his mouth hung open and his eyes wide in disbelief. Leo, Donnie and Raph looked around them, unimpressed. "This is where you saw him?" Donnie asked in a bored tone, leaning on his Bo staff lazily. It was quite dark by this time and hardly any humans walked around here this late at night, so they could afford to be more exposed than usual, (not completely but still enough to relax).

Mikey shook his head, "No! The last time I ran through there it lead to this giant tree! I swear it!" he cried.

Leo stared at his pleading brother sympathetically. His eyes were close to watering and his lower lip was quivering. He looked so defeated, like he really wanted them to believe he had seen these mythical creatures. Almost like that time where he had tried to convince them that there were alien brains in robot bodies, and when they shut him down, he had looked so dejected.

Raph slapped and hand on his forehead and groaned. "Quit playing around, Mikey!" he growled, his patience thinning, "I'm getting real tired of your – "

Before Raph could finish, Mikey darted past him and ran back through the bushes. "Hey! Where're you going?!" Leo cried, "Mikey, come back!"

"I'll get him." Raph growled again, preparing to run after Mikey, "Then I'm gonna smack the freckles offa him for wasting our – "

Before Raph could go after him, Mikey burst through bush directly next to them, staring around in bewilderment before looking back at his brothers. A short silence hung over the turtles, followed by a sudden burst of laughter from the older brothers. Despite the sad look on his face, they couldn't help themselves; the situation was just too humorous.

"Stop laughing at me!" Mikey cried, "I really DID see him! I'm not lying…" he trailed off as he looked down at his feet.

The laughter stopped as they looked at Mikey. Raph and Donnie could finally see how upset their brother was, with his fists clenched, his head lowered and his eyes only just brimming with tears. They couldn't help but feel bad for laughing as they grew silent.

Leo sighed slightly as he stepped forward and placed his hands reassuringly on Mikey's shoulders. "Mikey?" he said softly.

"…it's not a lie, Leo" Mikey mumbled in reply, folding his arms defensively and refusing to look up at his eldest brother.

"It's okay Mikey. Don, Raph and I believe you. Right guys?" he turned to his brothers expectantly.

Raph looked down at his feet and whistled tunelessly whilst Donnie looked to the side and rubbed the back of his head. "Well," Donnie began, "umm, well actually – "

Leo sent them a glare that would have sent even Rahzar running – and cowering – to a corner with his tail between his legs. Startled, Raph and Donnie straightened up and nodded their heads vigorously, their faces plastered with exaggerated fake grins."O-oh yeah! Sure! O-of course we believe you Mikey!" Donnie stuttered with a chuckle.

"Yeah, you, uh, did lead us all the way here to see this giant…rabbit…thing…so…yeah!" Raph stammered.

Leo turned back to his upset little brother, his glare vanishing from his features and said, "You hear that Mikey? We believe you. And I bet you I know what's going on. The reason why you can't find that giant tree might be because you may have somehow entered the spirit world. And the spirits just don't want to be seen right now. In the legends, spirits are said to only appear when they desire to be seen by the eyes of mortals. I guess you're very lucky, Mikey." He smiled as he patted Mikey's shoulder.

This seemed to cheer up Mikey a little as a small smile appeared across his face as he looked around at his brothers. "Really Leo? You think I'm lucky?" Mikey asked.

Leo winked at his younger brother and smiled. "You bet." Even if he couldn't bring himself to believe him, he had to make Mikey smile somehow; that's what big brothers do.

Mikey's smile then grew into a large grin as he ran full on into Leo and wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. Leo chuckled and returned the hug. He glanced behind him to look at Donnie and Raph who looked at him strangely. Leo simply responded with a shrug and an awkward grin.

When Mikey finally released Leo, he gave a smug grin towards his other brothers and said, "Ha! You hear that guys? I'm the lucky dude! I got to see a forest spirit, and YOU guys MISSED it! How's it feel to be left out the loop now, huh? Hahaha!"

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that Mikey." Raph growled. Donnie just face palmed.

With that, the four brothers made their way out of Central Park and into the city to begin their evening patrol, having already lost track of time.

As they left the park, a small, white, rabbit creature with large white eyes crept out of the bushes and stared after the retreating forms of the turtles.

* * *

><p>Later that night, the four boys returned to their lair, worn out from another battle against the Kraang and a gang of Foot Bots, and made their way to their way to their rooms and practically flung themselves upon their beds. Raph and Donnie fell asleep almost immediately, whilst Leo took the time to put away their weapons and make sure his brothers were fine, cracking their doors open slightly and peaking in. Once he was sure they were going to be fine, he silently closed the door and moved on. When he entered Mikey's room, he found him lying curled up on the floor, his face resting on a large sketchbook as he snored lightly. Leo smiled and shook his head before gently picking up his little brother in his arms and tucking him into his bed, not forgetting to give him his duck taped teddy bear, which Mikey hugged tightly, mumbling something under his breath in his sleep. Before he left, Leo picked up the sketch book and flicked through the pages. He sometimes forgot how good Mikey was at art…<p>

Leo paused at a small illustration of Mikey lying upon a large rabbit-like creature. Underneath the drawing was a brief note (with horrible spelling errors, but still readable) which read:

_I had a reely exiting day today! It started off with pizza, but then I met this giant kodama named Totoro! He was so cute! Kinda like Leatherhead, only less leathery! I tried to show my brothers, but they diddnt belive me as usal, but I think Leo did. I wish I culd show them somday too. I bet theyed love it too._

Leo looked up from the journal and at the sleeping Mikey and smiled. He walked over and placed a soft hand on his head. "You and me both, little brother," he whispered. With that, he placed the book at the foot of his bed, and like a true ninja, left the room without making a sound.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Are you guys liking this so far? It gets better I promise!**


	3. Chapter 3: Encounter in the Rain

**A/N: Hi guys! I'm super sorry for the long wait! I thought no one was reading this so I stopped, but then I saw that it had 6 follows so, what the heck, let's keep it going!  
><strong>

**I OWN NOTHING!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Part 3: Encounter in the Rain<strong>

"Man, this seriously sucks!" Raphael growled for the hundredth time that night, folding his arms across his chest and scowling as he leaned against the side of the Shell Raiser. "How the heck did the Shell Raiser break this time?!" he barked down at his taller brother.

"For the hundredth time, Raphael, _I don't know_!" Donatello growled irritably from underneath the large vehicle, "I think one of the Kraang managed to damage the drive shaft but…**_ouch_**!" he cried after hitting his head, followed by a string of muttered Japanese curse words, which were very colourful for one his age.

"How the heck did they do that?" Michelangelo asked as he sat playing a game on his T-phone next to Leonardo, who was leaning against the Shell Raiser beside Raphael, with his arms folded across his plastron, watching the exchange between his hot-headed brother and his smartest with slight irritation.

"Well, Mikey," Donnie sighed wearily, "the Shell Raiser was crashed on its side after one of the Kraang's van rammed into us, so I guess they must've – **_owww_**!" Donnie cried, once again having hit himself underneath the vehicle.

Leo closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. They had been out on another one of their evening patrols, looking for any sign of stray mutagen canisters, when they had run into some Kraang droids who had had the same idea. One of them had managed to flip the Shell Raiser on its side by ramming one of their vans into it full force, with the turtles still inside. Luckily, no one was severely hurt once the Shell Raiser had finally stopped rolling across the street (which was quite a wild ride, one that none but Mikey enjoyed), and they had managed to defeat the Kraang and put a stop to their latest operation within a few hours, but it had been a real challenge to flip the Shell Raiser back on its wheels again once it was all over. It was only after they were prepared to leave for the lair that they had discovered that the Shell Raiser was badly damaged underneath. They had been stood there for the better half of an hour with Donnie trying to fix it; however in their rush to get out of the lair eariler that night, Donnie had forgotten to bring his essential tool box, and so was taking longer than he usually would have.

As if none of them were in a bad enough mood already.

Looking at the time on his T-Phone, Leo sighed heavily. This was already taking far too long, and Splinter would surley get worried. "Donnie," Leo asked wearily, "How long will it take to get this thing fixed again?"

Donnie rolled out from the van and put a finger to his chin. "Um…judging by the amount of damage done under here and the fact that I don't have the tools essential for the job…I'd say approximately…another hour and a half."

The other brothers groaned loudly. Normally, they could have just run along the rooftops and sneak back into the sewers, but in this case, they couldn't. They couldn't leave the Shell Raiser in plain sight in the middle of the street; it would raise unsettling questions from the police, seeing as they were not really supposed to be parked there.

"Ugh, could this day get ANY worse?" Raph muttered under his breath.

Just then, there was a sudden flash of light, followed by a loud bang that echoed across the city. Mikey jumped in terror and gripped Leo's leg tightly, nearly nocking the older turtle off balance. Shortly after, rain began to fall, instantly drenching the brothers. All four turtles groaned in irritation. "_Aaaaaaaand_, it just DID!" Raph barked. "Why do I ask these questions? _WHY_?!"

"Calm down, Raph!" Leo growled, "Getting upset isn't gonna help anything!" Ignoring Raph's growled (and very rude) reply, he then turned to Donnie, who had just managed to crawl his way out completley from underneath the Shell Raiser. "Donnie, do you think you could go back to the lair and get the stuff you need to get this done faster?" he asked.

Donie stood up and dusted himself off, "Uh, yeah," he replied, "but It might take me a little while to get back on foot – " Donnie stopped and blinked once in realization, "...wait, do you mean me go alone and leave you guys in the rain?" Donnie asked, looking at his eldest brother in shock, "You've gotta be kidding, right?!"

Leo only gave him a half hearted shrug, shaking his head slightly to get the rain out of his eyes, "Well, someone has to keep an eye on the Shell Raiser, right? Don't worry, Don. We'll be fine, just go," he said and smiled reassuringly.

Hesitantly, Donnie nodded in understanding and quickly took off in direction of home. "I'll be back soon, okay?!" he called back as he ran into the night, "I'll bring my flashlight with me on my way back so you know it's me!" With that, Donatello disappeared, leaving Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo stood in the rain next to the broken Shellraiser.

A silence hung over them for a time, the only sounds heard being the splashing of the rain upon the concrete and their bodies, and the low grumbling of thunder in the distance. The quietness was shortly broken by Raph turning and asking Leo casually, "You wanna wait inside?"

Leo shook his head and replied, "Nah. You guys go ahead inside. I'll keep watch."

Raph rolled his eyes and sighed. "Dude, stop acting like a dumb 'noble hero' guy. I'm not gonna go inside and let you catch a cold. I'm not gonna be the one to nurse your stupid shell back to health!" he snapped, pointing an accusing finger at his older brother.

"Who said I'm trying to act noble?" Leo snapped back, swiping his brothers' finger away from his face, "I was just being considerate, because it was YOU who was complaining about getting wet not five minutes ago! And besides - "

Mikey listened to his brother's argument in silence with a sigh and a roll of his eyes. They always got in the most ridiculous of arguments, especially when one of them (usually Raph) was already in a sour mood. What he would give just to shut them up...

With a sudden jolt, Mikey remembered something that could possibly cool his brothers off at last.

Pausing the game on his T-phone, Mikey abruptly stood up and ran back inside the Shell Raiser, causing his brothers to stop their argument and wonder what their little brother was up to as they stared after him. Moments later, Mikey reappeared from the vehicle with two umbrellas. He opened up a large red one and handed it to Leo. All of this was done in complete silence.

Leo stared at Mikey in utter bewilderment for a moment, before taking the umbrella and holding it over the three of them, watching Mikey as he casually sat back down again and recommenced his game as if nothing had happened.

"Uh…thanks Mikey." Leo said awkwardly.

"Yeah…thanks Mikey." Raph mumbled grudgingly.

"No problameo dudes," Mikey replied nonchalantly with a shrug, not once looking up from his game, "It's what I do best. Besides, it's way better than listening to you guys argue over nothing like a bunch of angry birds again. Oh, and before you ask, it was April's idea to bring the umbrellas. Dunno why she made me bring two though. Might be that telepathetic thing she has going on."

"Telepathic, Mikey." Leo corrected.

Mikey shrugged again, "Whatever."

Leo and Raph shared a confused look before shrugging and resuming the silence once again. Mikey could be both very helpful and very weird in the weirdest of times. It was sometimes best not to question it and just move on.

An eternity seemed to have passed, but Donnie had not yet returned. Leo once again took out his T-Phone and checked the time; Midnight on the dot. Donnie had been gone for an hour and a half. Leo was starting to worry that he might have run into some trouble on his way back, and was in the process of calling him via T-phone when heard a quiet yawn below him. Quirking a brow, he looked down. It was Mikey, having put away his game long ago, and was now sitting with his elbows on his knees, his chin resting in his hands as he blinked several times in an effort to keep himself awake.

Leo smirked, rolling his eyes as he bent over slightly and put a hand on Mikey's shoulder. "Mikey, you okay?" he asked softly.

Mikey only nodded his head drowsily. On his right, Leo heard Raph smirk. "Aww, is it time for his nap already?" he teased.

"Knock it off, Raph" Leo snapped, and then turned back down to Mikey. "Mikey, do you wanna go back inside the Shell Raiser until Donnie gets back?" he said in a more gentle tone.

Mikey shook his head as firmly as he could. "Don't worry dude…I'll be fine…" he slurred, clearly unable to keep himself awake much longer as his head nearly slipped from its perch in his palm.

Leo and Raph shared a knowing look and shook their heads; the poor little guy was exhausted. Though they all had every right to be; they had been fighting Kraang droids nonstop for hours, so who wouldn't be tired?

With a sigh, Leo handed the umbrella to Raph and bent down on one knee next to Mikey. "Here, Mikey. Climb on," he offered. He would normally not do this, and result to letting him rest on his shoulder, but since it was raining, Mikey was more at risk of getting a cold, so he needed as much body heat as he could get, despite both of them being partly cold blooded. Meaning Leo had no real choice but to hoist him up onto his back.

Mikey turned a tired gaze towards his older brother. "You sure? Don't wanna break your shell dude…" he mumbled.

Leo chuckled and gave Mikey a warm smile. "It'll be fine Mikey. I'll just wake you up when Donnie gets back."

With that said, Mikey shrugged and wrapped his arms around Leo's neck as Leo hoisted him off the ground, hooking his arms underneath Mikey's legs and getting him into a comfortable position on his shell. "Thanks dude," Mikey mumbled tiredly as he rested the side of his face on his brothers' shoulder.

Leo grunted slighty underneath Mikey's weight. "No problem," he huffed.

Within seconds, Mikey was fast asleep on Leo's back, snoring softly and his head resting and arms dangling over Leo's shoulders.

"Ugh! Dang it, he's heavy!" Leo whispered through clenched teeth, though he needn't have bothered; Mikey was too far gone to hear him anyhow. "He needs to lay off the pizza!"

He then looked over to Raph, who had been watching the whole scene play out with a smug grin. "What?" he asked the smirking red clad turtle.

"Oh nothing. Just the fact that you're acting like "Momma Leo" again!" Raph laughed smugly.

Leo rolled his eyes at the mention of that annoying nickname they had given to him some time ago. It had occurred to his three brothers that Leonardo had a tendency to act like what they liked to refer to him as, a "mother goose" when it concerned his brothers wellbeing, more so than Donnie did. "Well," Leo grumbled, "he better not get used to this, I'm not gonna do this every time he gets tired. He's way too old, and way too heavy for this. And besides Raph, I used to do the same to you when we were younger."

Raph's eyes grew wide. "No you didn't! That was Donnie, not me!" he protested, his face turning slightly red at the embarrassing memory, though he tried to hide it by crossing his arms and turning away from the now smirking azure banded turtle.

"Pretty sure it was you. No denying it, Raphie!" Leo teased, a smug grin plastered on his face.

The use of the old nickname they used as small children made Raphael's cheeks go even more scarlet. "Bite me, Lame-anardo!" he hissed back.

"I love you too, Raph," Leo chuckled before resuming the silence. The rain fall and Mikey's gentle snores were the only sounds heard for the longest time as they waited for their purple clad brother.

"Where the heck is Donnie?" Raph growled after a while, staring up at the rooftops in search of his other younger brother, "He's been gone way too long!"

"Relax, Raph," Leo warned, "He's gonna be back soon. We have to be patient -"

"I'm gonna go find him! You stay with 'Sleepy' here while go look for Dork-atello!" Raph interupted, and before Leo could protest, Raph had plunked the umbrella on the shoulder that wasn't occupied by Mikey's head, and darted down the way Donnie had gone and disappeared into the night.

Leo scowled as he watched Raph vanish. How could he just leave him there with a heavy Mikey on his back in the middle of the rain?

Jerk. He would get him back for this later for sure.

The sudden sound of splashing footsteps from behind the Shell Raiser interrupted his thoughts. Leo tensed instantly, not daring to move a muscle as the footsteps came closer. How had he not detected that they were being watched?

He listened closley. It was too heavy to be a Foot Bot, but too light for a Kraang droid…

'_A mutant?_' Leo thought.

He then shuddered fearfully.

_'...Slash?'_

He tried to stay calm as he tried to thinkk of a quick getaway plan. He couldn't fight with Mikey on his back, but he couldn't put him down either; from what he had heard from Raph, Spike..._Slash_... would go to extreme lengths just to get them out of the picture for good, though he knew not exactly why. Raph wasn't so talkative after the whole ordeal. He would surley go after Mikey first, as he would be an easy target, and not to mention that it was near impossible to wake him up at this point; he was far too heavy a sleeper. An atomic bomb could explode right next to him and he would still be asleep! But no matter what, he had to protect his brother. He would never abondon any of his brothers, no matter the danger.

Even if that danger was his other brothers' friend, and ten times stronger than him.

He was their leader, and older brother. It was his duty to protect them at all costs.

The footfalls grew louder as the large, dark figure came closer. Leo prepared himself to run. Slash was far too strong to take on by himself. Running was the only option he had left…

However, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw standing tall on his left as the figure came out of the darkness.

"What the…" he breathed in wonderment as he stared upwards, his eyes wide and his jaw agape as he gaped at what appeared to be…

…A giant, rabbit like being…with large wide eyes, grey dampened fur from the rain and long black claws on its large stubby paws. And as if that wasn't weird enough, it had a small lily pad on its head as if it were an umbrella.

Leo stared at the creature beside him in shock. Every detail on this creature exactly resembled the picture in Mikey's journal.

He couldn't be…

"…Totoro?" Leo gasped quietly. He gave a wide eyed glance at Mikey, who was still sound asleep, his head leaning heavily on his right shoulder. "I don't believe it…h-he wasn't kidding…h-he's real…!" he stuttered quietly, turning his head to stare straight ahead, not trusting his eyes to look back at the creature that stood next to him.

Neither of them moved for what seemed like an eternity, but Leo's mind was reeling frantically. The mythical creature his little brother had been babbling about last night…was standing right next to him, in the rain, in New York, next to the broken Shell Raiser, with a damn lily pad on its head. Leo had seen many weird things in his life, himself and his own family included, but in that very moment, had never been more dumbfounded in his life. In fact, why wasn't he running?! For all he knew, this so called 'spirit' could be a death sprite from the underworld, and the only reason why he didn't devour Mikey last night was either because he was too tired to bother, or Mikey was far too annoying to bother eating! Also, Leo was mch bigger than Mikey, he would make an excellent meal!

Suddenly, he knew the answer.

Leo realized with a start that this creature was emitting a strange aura, something he had learned how to feel after months of one on one training and meditating with Splinter. It was an aura that was calming, reassuring, friendly, almost playful...

...almost magical.

It swept over Leonardo like a soft blanket, calming his nerves and relaxing his tensed muscles. He now knew that he should not fear this creature, nor should he find any reason to. He and his little brother were safe in his company.

However, it didn't cease the slight awkwardness he still felt. There was a spirit creature stood next to him, not moving, and possibly not even aware of his pressence, so what should he do? What should he say? He didn't know. Heck if he knew if this creature could even understand him at all. Not knowing what else to do in this awkward silence, Leo slowly looked back up at the Kodama.

"…um…Totoro?" he said apprehensively

In response, the Kodama slid its gaze to the young blue clad turtle, and gave him a strange, wide smile that would have been more appropriate for that creepy cat in 'Alice in Wonderland.'

"Tooooh…tooooh…roooh…" it seemed to respond quietly.

Despite himself and his shaken up state, Leo gave the creature an awkward smile and shrug, or as much of a shrug he could manage with his sleeping brother on his shoulder. "Oh, wait a sec!" he exclaimed suddenly, before bending over as much as he was able with Mikey still on his back, and gripped the second umbrella Mikey had brought with him (which got him thinking why he had even brought the second one with him in the first place, unless it was for Donnie when he came back). He opened the umbrella with a 'WHOOMPH' ythat had the creature's fur stand on end, and held it up to the strange creature. "Here, try this" he offered with a smile.

Totoro simply stared at the blue clad turtle blankly. What was this other little green creature giving him? A shield of some sort?

"Ngh! Hurry, Mikey's slipping!" Leo grunted, trying hard to keep Mikey on his back with one arm.

Totoro blinked once before finally accepting the umbrella from Leonardo, which allowed him to bounce Mikey carefully back into a comfortable position on his shell.

Leo watched in amusement as Totoro fumbled around with the umbrella. He couldn't help but smirk, finding his behaviour similar to that of Mikey's, before once again unhooking one arm from underneath Mikey's leg as he held up his own umbrella as a demonstration. "You hold it over your head, like this," he explained. He smiled again as the giant followed his example and held the umbrella over his pointed eared head. Leo bounced Mikey back on his shell and hooked his arm back under his leg.

The turtle and the beast stood in the rain in silence once more, though this one more content than previously. It truly was an anomalous scene to behold; a mutant turtle, equipped with ninja weapons, holding another similarly armed snoozing turtle on his back, standing next to a colossal spirit being, both of them holding umbrellas.

Indeed, nothing abnormal about that.

Of course, Leonardo, who was well-known amongst the family to have grown out of fairy tales at age four, long before Michelangelo, (Raphael had grown out of them by the age of five, whereas Donatello was 'too smart' for fairytales) was still quite disconcerted, despite his calm demeanor.

If Mikey ever woke up, he would have every right to rub it in his face.

He could already hear him chant 'Ha ha! I told you, I told you!' over and over again in his head, which made him roll his eyes with a smirk.

The rain had seemed to have lessened down to a light drizzle by this time, when a few heavy droplets of rain from a lamppost above hit Totoro's umbrella, causing his fur to stand up on end slightly from the noise.

What on earth was that? An earthquake? Whatever it was, it felt strange. But slightly interesting as well...

A few more heavy droplets landed on the umberella, and Totoro felt that same shiver run down his spine, though he seemed to like it as he began to smile that strange smile of his.

Ooh, this was fun! Maybe he could make more.

That smile of his managed to put Leonardo on the edge again as he gazed up at the Kodama. He only ever saw that sort of smile when Michelangelo was up to something, most of the time involving pranking the brothers, which was never a good sign.

"Oh no…" he cringed.

His fears were confirmed when Totoro jumped. It was only a small leap, his feet hardly even leaving the surface of the ground, but when he landed, it sent what felt like a blundering earthquake through the earth, causing several car alarms to go off, and for Leo to be swept right off his feet from the shockwave. "Waaaaagh!" he cried out in mild terror as he landed on his feet again, his knees buckling beneath him slightly. More heavy droplets of water came crashing upon them from the lamposts and rooftops, sending shivers down both their spines. It seemed as though Totoro had loved it as he roared loudly in joy.

Leo stared up wide eyed at the bellowing creature. He was just like Mikey, it was scary. It was totally amused by raindrops for goodness sakes! So much for not being dangerous.

"…mmmm…muh?" said an incoherent voice on Leo's shoulder. Mikey had finally woken up from all the noise it seemed.

Leo turned to look at his waking younger brother. "Hey Mikey. Sleep well, little brother?" he asked, to which Mikey gave a tired nod.

Mikey lifted his head to look at his older brother, a goofy grin plastered on his face, "Yep. Slept like a rock. Heh. Rocks," he chortled drowsily.

Leo darted his eyes to the side. "Um…Mikey? Y-y'know how you said you saw a Kodama called Totoro?" he stuttered nervously.

"Yeah…what about him?"

"Well, um…look up…"

Confused but too tired to really care, Mikey obeyed and looked up over Leo's left shoulder, and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

Totoro was there.

Totoro was _**THERE**_, and Leo could _**SEE** _him!

Mikey grinned widely and wrapped his arms around Leo's neck in a tight embrace. "See?! I told you! I TOLD you he was real! I told you so, I told you so!" he chanted over and over again happily.

Leo could only chuckle and smile at his brothers' delight. He hadn't seen Mikey this happy since their discovery of processed Italian food. And for the pizza crazed turtle, that was seriously saying something.

It was brilliant to see his smiling face again.

Suddenly, something bright from overhead caught Leo's attention as he looked up, and saw a faint light moving rapidly across the rooftops. Donnie's flashlight!

"Mikey, here comes Donnie. I guess Raph found him at last," he said with a sigh of relief. He was beginning to get worried about them.

It was then that the light suddenly detached into two, and began bouncing up and down.

Leo and Mikey shared a confused glance, which quickly transformed into one of fear once the owner of those lights came closer, and into the light of the lamppost above them. It wasn't Donatello, nor was it Raphael…in fact, it wasn't even a turtle. It was a giant cat creature, with multiple legs impelling it forwards at high speeds, its large, amber eyes piercing the darkness with an intensity no lamp or sunlight could match…

And it was heading straight for them.

The giant feline skidded to a stop on the wet pavement, just in front of the two stunned adolescent turtles, the wind rushing past them, blowing the umbrella clean off Leo's shoulders. It shot them a large, fanged grin and meowed. Mikey and Leo gasped, their eyes wide and fearful as Leo took a small step backwards. Not only was this cat huge, and not only did it have multiple legs like that of a caterpillar, but it had windows on its sides, like a bus…

"Dude...It's a Cat Bus…" Mikey said in a hushed tone. Leo could only nod, his power of speech taken from him.

The fur of the cat creature, (Newly dubbed, The 'Cat Bus') protracted, revealing a furry door shaped hole. Totoro, still holding up the spare umbrella though it had long since stopped raining, took a step forward towards the Cat Bus. Before boarding it however, he turned back to the turtles with a large toothy grin, and held out a small parcel wrapped in a bamboo leaf, and tied with a ribbon made of grass. Mikey held out his hand warily as Totoro gently placed the gift into his large green palm.

With that, Totoro hopped into the 'bus', and the Cat took off into the distance, hopping over buildings and dashing through the streets. The way it moved silently into the night would make even the most highly skilled Ninja envious.

…so, possibly even more skilled than The Shredder? The thought was almost hysterical.

The two teenaged turtles stood there in that same spot for a long time in stunned silence, staring out in the direction the Cat Bus had fled, eyes wide and mouths agape. Slowly, Leo slid his arms from under Mikey's legs as he slid down off his back and onto the pavement. After a long moment of silence, Leo finally muttered, almost to himself:

"…well Mikey, so much for giving Don his umbrella…"

From where he sat on the floor, Mikey could only nod silently.

Just then, another light, appeared on the rooftops. This time, it was only one light and it was fainter than the eyes – or 'headlights' – of the Cat Bus. The ghostly figure holding the light hopped down in front of them, accompanied by another slightly shorter figure; it was Donatello, carrying his tool box, and Raphael, wearing a slightly amused look on his face.

"Hey guys," Donnie said casually, and slightly out of breath, and behind him, Raph gave a salute and a smirk. "Sorry we took so long, heh. It took me longer to find my toolbox than I thought, and Sensei wanted to know what happened to you guys, so it took us some time to explain –"

Donnie was cut off unexpectedly by Leo charging him, wrapping his arms tightly around his waist and burying his face into the crook of his neck. Mikey followed suite, only he charged at Raphael, pinning his arms to his sides as he clung to him like a teddy bear.

Both Raph and Donnie stiffened and shared a dumbfounded look. What the shell was wrong with them? For Mikey to hug one of them like that at random was normal…but Leo? Now that was borderline bizarre.

"…uh, L-Leo? What's going on? What happened?" Donnie asked nervously, "Did something happen to you guys while we were gone, are you alright?"

Raph scoffed and rolled his eyes, "They probably just got worried about us again," he groaned, "we're ninjas, remember? We can take care of ourselves!"

Leo then finally lifted his head, but his expression was quite unexpected; he was grinning like a fool. And what he did next startled them even more. "Oh my god Donnie you won't believe it!" he babbled gleefully, still clinging onto Donnie, "Mikey was RIGHT! The thing, th-the Totoro thing, it came! It came and I SAW him!"

"We saw a Cat Bus thingy too!" Mikey chimed, still clinging onto Raph, who was gaping at the two of them in astonishment, as was Donnie.

"Wait, you saw what?" Donnie said, struggling to take all of this in properly, but the two excited turtles were not yet through.

"It was freaking huuuuuuge!" cried Leo, spreading his arms out wide in exaggeration.

"With eyes, like, THIS big!" Mikey exclaimed, putting his fingers over his eyes in a circle as a goofy demonstration.

"It was AWESOME!" they both yelled in unison, before releasing their stunned brothers to bounce round each other and laugh. "Hahahaha! I can't believe it! I saw Totoro! Mikey, I'll never doubt you again little bro!" Leo laughed, grabbing Mikey and pulling him down for a noogie.

"Owww! Hahaha! I told you bro!" Mikey cried, trying to pull himself out from his brothers' grip, but failing horribly as his laughter weakened him.

Behind them, Raphael and Donatello stared at the two 'dancing dorks' in pure, unadulterated incomprehension. Not only were Leo and Mikey prancing around and acting like fools in the middle of the street, but Leonardo, their older brother, leader, and the one known out of the brothers to be the calmest and most mature of the four turtles, had taken one of the most important rules of the Ninja – the art of silence – and had practically slaughtered it, maliciously burnt the remains, and then relinquished the ashes out through the nonexistent window.

Not only that, but Leonardo was laughing. He was actually laughing and dancing around like a small child at Christmas with their youngest brother. This was something he had not had the chance to do ever since he had taken up the heavy burden of leadership some time ago, during their first time outside of the sewers.

Despite the extreme oddity of the situation, the two couldn't help but exchange a smile at the scene before them. Leonardo almost never had the chance to act like a normal teenager…well, as normal a teenager as a mutant ninja turtle could be, due to the obligation he held as a leader as well as an older brother of four. But looking at the two of them now, laughing and playing together…

It was almost as if the burden had vanished. As if it was never there.

Smiling at each other and shrugging their shoulders, Donnie and Raph decided to let their brothers play around just a little longer.

Let Leo truly smile again…If only for a little while.

* * *

><p>Later that night, the four brothers, exhausted from their long (and wet) mission, finally returned to the lair inside their repaired Shell Raiser. Splinter was waiting for them at the entrance, and to his surprise, he was greeted by a bouncing Leonardo and Michelangelo as they ran out of the Shell Raiser, and nearly knocked him clean off his feet as they charged and hugged him, babbling about seeing a spirit creature of sorts before they ran off again into the lair. He looked back at his two remaining sons, raising a confused brow, only to recive a pair of smirks and shrugged shoulders.<p>

However, before Splinter could possibly question them further, a pair of harsh, chesty coughs were heard from the living room, followed by sneezes. Donnie tensed up. "Uh oh. I knew I shouldn't have left them out in the rain," he sighed, stepping past his father and heading towards his two sick brothers. Raphael began to laugh as he followed Donatello, and Splinter watched them all as they fussed over one another. He couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face. He had never seen both Michelangelo and Leonardo so joyful like this since they were very young, and it brought warmth to his heart upon knowing that even with all the preassures of the problem mounting on him day by day, his oldest son could still act like the young, foolish teenager that he was.

However, he also knew that two cetain turtles in particular were going to be bedridden for a couple of days, and so he made haste to the kitchen to prepare some green tea for them.

* * *

><p>Leo let out another chesty cough as he sniffed, wrapping himself deeper into the warmth of his blankets as he lay in his bed. Man, did this ever suck. Maybe he should have just waited inside the stupid Shell Raiser like Raph said he should, then he wouldn't be in this mess. Now he would have to stay in bed for a few days unless he wanted to face Donnie's constant mothering, and he was going to miss out on training sessions and patrols...<p>

The door to his room began to creak open as someone slid inside, before quietly shutting again. He didn't have to open his eyes to know who it was as he shuffled over to his bed and climbed in, nuzzling their head underneath his chin as they attempted to snugle down. Smiling, he shifted himself further across his bed to make room for his intruder, shifting his arm from beneath the covers to wrap it around his little brother.

"Bein' sick on your own seriously sucks," Mikey sniffed.

Leo let out a small chuckle despite his aching throat, "Yeah. Bein' sick sucks, period."

Mikey snuggled closer to Leo. "But it was worth it, wasn't it?"

Leo grinned, "Oh yeah. Sorry I didn't believe you before, Mikey. It was kind of amazing, really. I never thought in a million years that I'd see something like that. I've seen weed monsters, alien robots, mutant creatures and a robot ninja army, but never any spirit creatures...so this is a first."

Mikey looked up at his brother with a giant grin, "I could tell, dude! You were acting like you were high as a kite!" he laughed.

Leo drew away slightly so he could look down at Mikey, his eyes narrowed playfully and a large grin across his face. "Oh really?" he said slowly, "So in other words, I was acting like you?"

Mikey gasped in mock offence, "Hey! Take that back, Lame-o-nardo!" he laughed, smacking Leo on his shoulder.

Leo let out a laugh as he suddenly began to tickle Mikey, cackling as Mikey began to laugh and struggle out of Leo's grip, but to no avail as the tickling weakened him, but he would not go down without a fight as he tickled Leo back, and within seconds the two were lying on the floor in a helpless fit of giggles.

In the end, Leo knew that Mikey was right. Meeting that giant, gentke creature was totally worth getting sick for. If he had gone inside the Shell Raiser, he would never have gotten a cold, but then he would never have had that experience.

He would have never had the chance to act like a kid again. 


	4. Chapter 4: Growing Trees

**A/N: Hello! back by demand, here is part 4! it took forever, but here you go! i hope you enjoy!**

**I OWN NOTHING!**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Part 4: Growing Trees<span>**

"Raph! On your right!" Leonardo shouted over his shoulder as he dropkicked a Foot Bot on the head, whacking him into the trash cans in the alley way and watching as it sparked and smoked as the robot shut down, only to be immediately replaced by another robot as it charged Leonardo from his left side, but he was quickly able to deflect its oncoming attack and instead hurtled it into Donatello's spinning staff with a hard back kick.

"I'm on it!" Raphael shouted back to his older brother, thrusting the tip of his Sai into the forehead of the Foot Bot on his right, before quickly taking down another from behind before it could impale him with its dagger-like mechanical arms.

"These guys are really starting to get on my nerves!" Donatello grunted. Using his Bo staff, he launched himself over five Foot Bot, before spinning it and swiping it under them, sweeping them clean off their feet. "How'd that pavement taste, Foot scum?!" he taunted complacently.

Michelangelo danced and bounded across the alleyway, using his nunchaku to swiftly take out any Foot that dared to come within a few feet of him, grinning all the while. "**_BOOYAKASHA_**!" he cried ecstatically, taking out the last of the Foot with his kusarigama blade before doing a small victory dance on the spot, "We stomped these Foot, huh dudes?" he laughed.

"Technically, Mikey," Donnie began, "they'd be called 'Foots' –"

"Can it, dorks," Raph interrupted sarcastically.

Donnie pouted, and Leo shook his head smiling softly. It had been a whole week since their little 'experience' with the spirit creatures in the rain, and Leo had since 'recovered' from his little episode and regained his calm, leader-like demeanour, as well as that blasted cold he and Mikey had suffered from. Though he had said after they had fixed the Shell Raiser that he had just been through something completely mind blowing (even though Donnie and Raph obviously didn't believe either of them) and was suffering from a little hysteria, he couldn't deny that he enjoyed acting like a real teen again. It felt…refreshing, just to let it all out.

And he couldn't have shared that precious moment with anyone but his fun loving, wild brother, Michelangelo.

Speaking of which:

"Oh, I just remembered!" Mikey cried jubilantly, leaping over to Donnie and grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him roughly, "can we go and check on them now? Please? _Pleeease_?!" he implored, looking up at his purple clad brother with his baby blue eyes wide and pleading.

Donnie rolled his eyes and looked over to his eldest brother. "It's your call, Leo," he said.

Sighing, Leo looked over to Raph, who closed his eyes and held up his hands as if in surrender, as if to say 'don't look at me, I don't give a damn'.

So it was after much debating with himself (and practically giving in to Mikey's big blue sad eyes) Leo sighed again and nodded. "Five minutes," he said finally.

Mikey beamed in response, and ran over to the eldest turtle and squeezed him tightly, knocking the wind out of him. "Thanks bro!" he said before releasing Leo and climbed his way quickly to the top of the building.

As Leo stood gasping for air from his brothers' crushing bear hug, he looked up at his two remaining brothers.

"This is gonna take longer than five minutes, isn't it?" Raph asked, his expression telling Leo that he already knew what was coming, and clearly wasn't happy about it.

"Yep," Leo replied simply with a nod.

Raph and Donnie groaned miserably as they all followed their little brother back up the building, where he waited impatiently. "C'mon bros! Let's move!" he called with a smile on his face before running in the direction of Central Park, his older brother reluctantly following behind him.

* * *

><p>When the 'Heroes-in-a-Half-Shell' had returned to the lair that night after the Shell Raiser had been fixed, Leo and Mikey had shown Raph and Donnie their small present after Donnie had gave them their horrible flavoured medications. They ran straight to the kitchen and unwrapped the present, which revealed to be filled with…acorns.<p>

At first they were all baffled, until Mikey piped up enthusiastically saying that they could grow another tree in the lair. Knowing that 1) Splinter would unquestionably object to that; they didn't need another tree in the dojo, one was enough, and 2) that it was a miracle that the tree they already had grew down there in the first place, so they decided against that plan. But before Mikey could get upset about it, Leo had kindly recommended that the next night, if they had felt at all better from their cold, they could go and plant the acorns in the field in Central Park, to which Mikey, and even Raph and Donnie, eagerly agreed to.

It would be nice to grow a tree, right?

However, as Leo, Raph and Don now sat in the bushes with their bodies slumped and expressions showing how they were nearly bored to tears, they wished they hadn't been so eager. After they planted them, Mikey insisted that he could go to the spot daily to see if they grew at. He would always sit directly in front of the spot, legs crossed and his body leaning slightly forward and his eyes staring intently at the patch.

And he would stay like that.

All night.

_Every_ night.

That is until he either fell asleep in that position from boredom, or the others would urge him to go back home before Sensei punished them again for being out so late; so far, they had been through five 'Randori's' for their lateness.

The thought of any more punishments like that made them shudder.

Raph gave a long suffering sigh as he lay himself down on the soft grass behind the bushes. "Gyah! This bites!" he groaned, "We've been doing this every single night for the better half of a week! Why does he have to do this?"

"Because Mikey," Leo replied solely with a shrug, not once taking his eyes off Mikey. He was out in the open, and completely vulnerable to any attacks. Not only that, but all his attention was focused on that little patch of dirt; despite how well trained he was, he probably would never see the enemy coming until it was too late. So it was up to Leo to jump in and protect him from whatever happened.

At Leo's simple answer, Donnie and Raph shared a glance and shrugged. "Okay," they said in unison, as if were the most evident answer in the history of Mikey, and went back to whatever activity they were doing previously to amuse themselves; for Donnie, it was texting April for advice for her newest science class assignment, and for Raph it was spinning and examining his Sais, clearly unentertained.

After several minutes of bored silence, Donnie looked at the time on his T-phone; it read 11:58pm. He stood up from where he sat on the grass and tapped Leo on the shoulder, indicating the time on his T-phone. Leo nodded in silent understanding, and motioned his head towards Mikey as a sign for him to go forward. Donnie cautiously emerged from his hiding place in the bushes, and walked over to Mikey, who was still staring at the patch, only this time instead of eagerness, a disappointed look was spread across his freckled features. After so many days, the planted acorns still showed no signs of growing. Donnie looked down sadly at this younger brother. He hated seeing him like this. They all did.

He kneeled down beside Mikey and put a hand softly on his shoulder. "Mikey," he said gently, "time to go buddy."

Mikey looked over to Donnie, then back to the patch as he sighed. "…okay" he said sadly.

Donnie patted his shoulder reassuringly and helped Mikey up. "Don't worry Mikey. They'll grow when they're ready."

Mikey only responded with a small nod.

They made their way to the bushes where the two remaining brothers awaited them. As they prepared to leave, they saw the look on Mikey's face and sighed.

"Don't worry Mikey," Donnie said again, trying to reassure his little brother as he looked back onto the field, "it won't take too long now. They just need a bit of rain and sunshine and the process of germination which would...WHAT THE _HELL_?!"

The three other turtles looked sharply at Donatello at his sudden outburst. Raph prepared to draw his Sais as he took a step next to Donnie. "What is it? Is it the Foot?" he asked, almost eagerly. He longed for some action after what seemed like endless hours of sitting on his shell doing nothing.

"Is it The Purple Dragons?" Leo inquired, preparing to draw out his katanas, "Or the Kraang?"

"…How about 'Big Rabbit Thing with Umbrella…" Donnie responded distantly, never peeling his large brown eyes away from the field.

The other boys looked at each other in puzzlement, and walked to stand next to their tallest brother.

All jaws dropped to the floor at what they saw.

The turtles were staring wide eyed at none other than Totoro himself, still holding Donnie's umbrella over his head, followed by the two smaller versions of himself that Mikey had claimed he had been chasing. They were steadily circling the patch where the turtles had planted the acorns.

A silence passed between the brothers, until Raph murmured slowly, "What. The. Hell. Is._ That_?"

"It can't be…" Donnie breathed. "It's…"

"Totoro…" Leo said, a small smile on his face, whilst Mikey wore a grin that threatened to split his face.

"YOU SEE?!" he crowed, repeatedly poking Donnie on the shoulder, "We TOLD you he was real! But YOU didn't believe us! Now who's the dummy, huh?"

Donnie and Raph could only look at each other, completely speechless. When Mikey had told them the first time, they thought he was delirious. When Leo had told them, they thought he was high. But as they stood there, watching as this so called 'kodama' walk around in the middle of Central Park in New York City like nobody's business, right before their very eyes…

"Well," Donnie began nonchalantly, still staring at the kodama in the field, "so far this year I've had to deal with giant Weed Monsters, alien brains in robot bodies, Robot Ninjas in New York, meeting the girl of my dreams, and now a spirit creature that looks like a damn rabbit holding my umbrella over his head…well, I'm out," and then he proceeded to put two fingers to the side of his head as if they were a gun, and pretended to shoot himself.

"I thought you guys where nuts when you told us but…dudes, I've gotta be dreaming this…" Raph said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Leo and Mikey folded their arms over their chests smugly. "Told you so," they said in unison, and shared a high three.

"But, what the heck are they doing out in the open like that? Why are they just walking around the patch?" Donnie asked, planting a hand on his forehead and shaking it as Raph had done.

Leo shrugged, "Beats me. From what I've heard from Mikey, these things can grow plants and stuff, but – hey, where are you going?!"

During their little debate, Mikey had flown over their heads and was now running towards the creatures, joining them in their little "dance" with a childlike grin on his face.

"What is he doing?" Raph asked in bewilderment.

Donnie was about to respond with a sarcastic remark, but Leo beat him to it. "He's having fun," he said, a smile growing across his face. Raph and Donnie watched wordlessly as Leo hopped over the bush and ran to join Mikey and the Kodamas, before looking to each other.

"I guess…having a little fun…wouldn't hurt…right?" said Donnie, with a small smile.

"…guess not," replied Raph with a shrug and a smirk of his own. When have they ever gotten the chance to do something stupid together? Hardly ever, it seemed.

With a nod and a shared grin, the two turtles joined their brothers in the field. By this time, the large spirit Totoro, the smaller kodamas, Leo and Mikey were stood in a straight line in front of the patch, their hands put together as if in prayer. Mikey looked over to the two brothers who had joined them and smiled smugly once again. "Decided to join us, dudes?" he laughed.

They simply rolled their eyes in unison, both having a slight blush on their cheeks from embarrassment. Leo only chuckled at the two of them.

Totoro looked down at the turtle brothers lined up beside and smiled widely. These strange creatures acted like those human children that he had seen running around this strange place called a city. And every time he saw them, there were always more of them. How adorable!

Well, now that they had arrived, it was time that he started to work his magic.

He then proceeded to put his hands in front of him and leaned forwards, then uncurled again, raising his arms to the sky as he did so. The turtles, after looking awkwardly at each other, followed suit. They repeated this strange movement for a while, smiles slowly forming on their faces.

"This is really stupid!" Raph laughed.

"Then why are you doing it and laughing, Meathead?" chuckled Donnie.

Raph shrugged, "I don't know! It's…actually kinda fun…in a weird, _weird_ kinda way…"

"I don't know about you guys, but this feels like the stretches we do in the morning before training," Leo commented, "and my arms are getting tired!" he snorted.

"I'm not getting tired! This is cool!" giggled Mikey.

Totoro suddenly had a focused look on his face, his large furry arms slowing down and straining, almost as if he were struggling to pull something up from the ground. With a final tug of effort, Totoro raised his arms in the air with a strained growl, and as he did, a small plant popped out from the soil.

The turtle brothers stood in shock as their jaws dropped and their eyes went wide.

No freaking way...

"H-how is that possible?!" Donnie cried, "Y-you can't just stretch and expect plants to produce like that! I-it's physically impossible - !"

"For spirit creature thingies," Mikey piped up, following Totoro's lead and pulling his arms upwards, "ANYTHING is possible!"

As he said this, another plant sprang from the ground with a pop.

Leo did the same, followed by a dumbstruck Raph and a stupefied Donnie. Tiny plants popped up all around the patch as they continued this strange process. All four brothers were grinning in disbelief. They were growing plants by stretching! This was by far the most foolish, most bizarre thing they had ever done, and yet they loved it!

"You think this is how Sensei grew that tree in the dojo?" Raph snorted, tugging his arms upwards as more plants sprouted from the earth.

Next to him, he heard Leo laugh, "Now that I think about it, it could be!"

"Dudes, if we'd known this sooner, we could have our very own garden down there!" Mikey cheered.

"I'm still having a very difficult time in believing in all of this," Donnie said, "it goes against all logic, and is notoriously impossible…but to heck with it, it's fun!"

They continued this strange plant growing process, realizing as they did, the plants kept on growing, taller and taller, rising higher and higher into the night sky, causing Mikey to nearly fall over as they brushed over him. The turtles gazed up in awe as they watched the small leaves begin to grow and thicken, some plants intertwining their stems with others to turn into a thick, impenetrable trunk. The small petals that sprouted from the stems expanded to fully grown, beautiful lush green leaves as the plants continued to grow in size, until they were no longer an array of plants, but a solid, towering full grown tree, large enough that it made nearby sky scrapers seem small and inferior in comparison.

Any passer-by still walking about the streets that late at night would have stopped and stared in awe at the sudden appearance of this great tree, oblivious of how it grew to that size, or of whom or what had grown it in such a short time.

It truly was an incredible scene to behold to all who gazed upon it. And to the four teenaged mutant turtles, it was an amazing accomplishment that they could have only dreamed of, and it was standing right before their wide, amazed eyes.

"OH YEAH, DUDES!" Mikey cried out, hoping onto Leo's back and wrapping his arms around his neck, the sudden action making Leo stumble forwards, "We grew a tree! We're AWESOME! We're SUPER TURTLES! HIGH THREE!"

They all laughed in triumph and shared a high three at their amazing and 'physically impossible' achievement. And somehow, somewhere deep inside him, Donatello felt a strange feeling wash over him…something he hadn't felt in a long time…though he couldn't quite describe it yet, but one thing was for sure…he loved it. And he was sure Raph, Leo and Mikey felt the same way. Especially Mikey from the looks of it.

He smiled as he watched his older and younger brothers laugh and jump around in excitement, and looked up at the Kodama that had helped them achieve all of this. Totoro caught his gaze, and grinned back down at him.

He didn't know how, but this creature had managed to bring out something within Donnie in those few amazing moments, something he had not used since he was a small child…

During their laughter, they had noticed Totoro had taken out some kind of strange metal object seemingly from out of nowhere, and whipped it out onto the grass as they watched it spin. It appeared to be a silver spinning top, but it didn't stop spinning; in fact, it never even touched the grass. It simply floated just above the ground and stayed there, hovering there like a humming dragonfly. Confusion clouded the turtle's minds, until their confusion was soon replaced with surprise when Totoro jumped upon the spinning top, his small feet resting comfortably on the small object.

Totoro looked happily toward the dumbstruck turtles, as if inviting them to join him on the small floating contraption. They all looked at each other, knowing fully well that they couldn't fit on the device, before Mikey had an idea. He leaped off Leo's back and ran over to Totoro, jumping on to his furry stomach and clinging on tightly to his fur.

"Hahaha! C'mon guys, climb on!" Mikey called down to his older siblings, who still stood dumbfounded at the sight.

Before long however, Leo shrugged shoulders with a grin on his face, and ran towards the floating beast. "Yahoo!" he cried as he leapt onto Totoro's left shoulder and clung on tight. "Hey! It's not so bad! Hey guys, climb on!" he called down.

Raph smirked and shrugged before following his brothers' lead and leaping onto the kodama's right shoulder. He nearly slipped clean off, but found his bearings again and laughed. "Hey! This is kinda fun!" he cheered.

Despite all this extra weight, Totoro seemed to be able fit the three turtles on his furry body just fine, and seemed quite pleased that the young turtles were trying to hitch a ride on him as he smiled.

"Come on Donnie! Jump on, dude!" Mikey called down with a wave.

"Yeah, there's still room for one more next to Mikey!" Leo laughed.

"Yeah, c'mon 'Dorkatello'! What, you too smart for this kinda stuff?" Raph mocked.

Donatello pouted at Raphael's comment, but now that he thought about it, why wasn't he already up there? Was it because his scientific mind still refused to believe that all of this was really happening? That there really were such things as forest spirits running around New York? That they had grown a giant tree in the middle of Central Park by simply stretching their arms up and down?

A part of his brain told him that if he pinched himself, he would wake up drooling on his desk in his lab after working too long on a retro mutagen, whilst holding a picture of his beloved April in his hand. Well, he wouldn't actually mind that kind of scenario of course, but still…

Couldn't he just let go of all the statistics, the science and probability for once and just go for it? Couldn't he have, just for once, some mindless fun?

He remembered something he had once told himself during a fight against one of their enemies, months and months ago…

_Don't think…just do._

Grinning a gapped tooth grin, he took all of his logic and sense of reality and let it go, purging it from his mind. Just this once.

"Heads up guys! Yee-hee!" he cried before taking a running jump and latching onto Totoro like an oversized teddy bear, holding on for dear life.

With the final turtle on board, as well as the Kodamas' smaller companions, the floating spinning top proceeded to levitate from the ground, flying higher and higher as the turtles held on tighter, all of them whooping with laughter, until they passed the leaves of the gargantuan tree, reaching the darkening skies as they began to fly towards the city. Totoro and the turtles were soon soaring over the skyscrapers, gazing down in awe at the beauty of the urban lights that glistened and shone in the night. They laughed and cheered as they flew through the night.

"This is AWESOOOME!" Mikey screamed with a smile wide enough to split his face, "Turtles were born to fly!"

"Wooo-hoo!" Raph cheered, before a thought suddenly occurred to him. "I don't get it though, why aren't people screaming in terror at a giant flying rabbit flying through the streets with mutant turtles riding on it?!"

"I dunno!" Leo replied, unable to hold back his own childish grin; he was flying on a giant rabbit spirit for crying out loud! "I guess it's because were invisible to them! Remember what I told you about how they only show themselves to those they want to?"

"So, we're invisible?!" Donnie cried, "that's…AWESOME! We're the wind! Yahoo!"

At Donatello's response, the other three brothers were, to say the least, a bit surprised. Normally he would have gone on a rant on how impossible it would be for a creature to truly be invisible to the naked eye, but instead, he simply accepted it. Just like that. Leo smiled at his younger brother.

As they continued to soar above the city, over the heads of millions of oblivious humans, Totoro released a mighty roar that echoed and boomed throughout the city like thunder after lightning.

Giving in to their childish pleasure, the turtles mimicked him. "**_GRRRAAAAAAGH_**!" they cried in unison before falling into another fit of laughter at the sheer stupidity of what they had done. They felt like children again, playing pretend without a single care in the world. And they loved every second of it.

Mikey looked to Donnie with a grin plastered on his face. "You believe me now Don?" he asked smugly.

Donnie pouted for a moment, before rolling his eyes and smiling at his younger brother. "Yeah, Mikey" he said kindly, "I'm sorry I ever doubted you little bro."

Mikey smiled back.

"Hey, guys!" Leo called to his brothers, "you know what this calls for?"

The boys all nodded in unison with ecstatic grins on their faces. They took in a deep breath and bellowed at the top of their lungs a single, spectacular word as they flew into the night skies:

"BOOYAKASHAAAAAAA!"

* * *

><p>Back in the sewers, Master Splinter sat crossed legged under the tree in the centre of the dojo, his eyes closed and his expression calm. However, what could be seen on the outside was not entirely the same as what was on the inside.<p>

'_Where are those boys?' _Splinter thought worriedly, '_they should have been home two hours ago…'_

Hamoto 'Splinter' Yoshi may have been a highly skilled (and when the situation calls for it, highly dangerous) Ninja master and teacher, but he was also a father. A loving, slightly over-protective father with four mutant, teenage boys whom he had trained and raised on his own in the sewers for fifteen years, in fear of the human world above fearing them, rejecting them, abusing them or even experimenting on them for what they were, focusing on the outside rather than what was inside.

Ever since he had let them venture from the safety of the sewers almost a year ago, he had worried time and time again for their wellbeing, no matter how many times they told him 'Don't worry Sensei, we'll be careful' or 'we'll be home before midnight! We promise!'

Because since when do you trust a fifteen year old to keep his promise to be home on time anyhow?

For the past few nights this week, they have been staying out late, past their curfew, and even though he punished them for it, at least they had all come back safely. Now however, it was almost three in the morning, and they had still not yet returned from their evening patrol. No message, no phone call, nothing. He was beginning to become slightly nervous, but then again, he was always like this. He had said so to Leonardo himself. He was always afraid for them, every time the four of them left the lair.

It was something that, as a single father, he just could not hold back.

His mind was nearly set on going to the surface to find them himself, until a voice tainted with a mixture of relief and panic caught his attention from the doorway to the dojo.

"Master Splinter! Sensei!"

Splinter's eyes shot open at the sound of April O'Neil running into the dojo, her eyes wide and afraid as she tried to catch her breath. She had offered to stay with him in the lair until the turtles had returned, which had proven to be a while; she was not the only one who worried for their safety. To her, the four mutant turtles were like the brothers she never had.

"April? What is it? Calm yourself and tell me what has happened, my child," he said calmly, as he stood up to full height and placed a compassionate paw on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.

It seemed to work as she took a deep breath, and finally told Splinter the news. "It's the turtles!" she cried, "I found them near the entrance of the Lair, but…they were lying on the floor, unconscious! I-I just panicked s-so I came to get you!"

Splinter's eyes widened in fear as he quickly exited the dojo, with April close behind him. They made it to the turnstiles at the entrance of the Lair, but both gasped in shock at what he saw.

His four boys were lying on the floor, completely unconscious next to one another.

He rushed up to them and keeled down, scanning their bodies for any injuries and checking their pulses. They seemed fine, no bruises or broken bones anywhere. That at least, put his fears at ease for a bit. But why were they unconscious? What had happened to his boys?

"Sensei," April said, fear tinting her voice, "Will they be okay?"

Before Splinter could answer, he heard a groan from below him.

It was Leonardo. He was waking up! Thank goodness.

Both Splinter and April sighed heavily in relief as he held Leonardo's upper half in his arm and placed a gentle hand on his head. "Leonardo, it is me. Wake up, my son," he called to him softly.

Leo groaned again before his eyes finally blinked open, dragging himself to the world of the waking. He turned his head to his right, and his eyes flew wide open at the sight of his Sensei towering over him.

Oh shoot…

"Ah!" Leo exclaimed, sitting upright in one sharp movement, "S-sensei! H-how did you get out here – what the - ?" Splinter and April watched as Leo looked around him in pure confusion, and then gasp as he looked down at his still unconscious brothers. He went to them one by one and shook them awake, "Guys! Guys, wake up!"

"Mmmmm…muh?" Raph mumbled as he rubbed his eyes drowsily before bolting upwards in shock. "W-what the? How did we – wha?" he stuttered in bafflement.

Mikey woke up next with a long yawn and a stretch. "...mm…ah, that was a good – what the? Hey, how'd we get here?! Ah! Sensei!" he cried, noticing said rat sat across the platform watching their sons try and put together where they were and how they got there, with a not so pleasant look on his rat features.

Finally, Donnie woke himself up, but his awakening was not as slow as his brothers; he instantly knew something was wrong. In fact, as soon as his eyes flickered open, he was instantly on his feet and looking around him, his eyes wide and mouth agape in wordless shock. He spun around and caught sight of Splinter and April staring at him, and immediately turned as scarlet as a mutant turtle could get. "A-April! Sensei! Hi! Um…h-how long have you been sitting there?" he stuttered.

"Long enough" Splinter replied as he stood up, his sharp tone clearly telling the turtles he was NOT amused. "Did I not clearly tell you four to be home before midnight?! It is now three in the morning! Where have you been?!" he snapped, folding his arms over his chest in disapproval.

The boys in green looked to one another, fearful of what punishment could befall them tonight. There is no possible way that Sensei would believe their little tale. In fact, judging by the fact that they had woken up in that spot, it could have all been a dream.

But they didn't remember falling asleep, or even returning to the lair…

"Dudes!" Mikey piped up suddenly, "this is exactly what happened to me the first time! I was with Totoro in the forest, and then the next minute, I was in that tunnel place you found me at!" He shivered, "That's freaky!"

"I guess…that would make sense…" Donnie said, stroking his chin in thought "or logically speaking, it could be that we never experienced any of that at all, and that we were exhausted from the days' events and just passed out on the floor, and were simply dreaming all of it. After all, growing plants by stretching your arms up and down? Heh, it's just not physically possible – "

"Yo, Dorkatello," Raph interrupted, "before you go on one of your 'geek rants', what's that in your belt pocket?"

Blinking once, Donnie looked down to his belt and saw a small pouch tucked into it. "Huh? What's this?" he mumbled to himself as he took out the pouch and emptied its contents into his large green hand. His eyes flew open as he stared at his prize.

"…they're...acorns..."

For a moment, a stunned silence passed over them as they all gathered around and stared at Donnie's acorn-filled palm.

Donnie smirked once, a smile itching across his face.

Leo fought a smile, but was starting to fail as a chuckle escaped his lips.

Raph slapped his hands over his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

Mikey couldn't help but giggle a little bit.

Suddenly, the platform was filled with uncontrollable bursts of laughter from the turtles, all of them clutching their stomachs or doubling over in pain from their laughter. Splinter and April could only stare at them in disorientation. What just happened? What did they miss?

"Hahaha! Oh screw logic, it was real! It was all real! It wasn't a dream!" Donnie cried out in between his fits of laughter.

"Like shell it was!" Raph laughed, grabbing Donnie and pulling him down to give him a noogie, to which he protested to but laughed all the same.

"It's like you said, Mikey! Turtles were born to fly!" Leo laughed, thrusting his fist in the air triumphantly.

"Aw yeah, bros!" Mikey screamed joyfully, "We grew a giant TREE! HIGH THREE!"

As the brothers shared another high three and continued to laugh together, Splinter allowed himself to smile at the scene before him. He had not seen his boys act like this since they were very young, and had not yet held the burden of the world on their shoulders. It was a welcoming sight to behold to the eyes of a father. He looked down to April, who had also watched the scene with a smile on her face, happy to see that her four turtle brothers were well and happy, even if the reason for their happiness made no sense to her at all.

Maybe he could let their lateness slide, just this once. He was too tired to dish out any 'Randori' for now anyways.

It would have to wait until morning.

* * *

><p>Later on that night, as the turtles departed to their rooms to gain some much needed rest, Donnie lay down in his bed, staring up at the ceiling with a smile on his face. He couldn't help but fondly remember their little adventure from that glorious night. It was truly breath-taking to watch that plant grow to an unimaginable size within seconds, and then be taken to fly high above the restless city of New York, to see the lights, to feel the wing rushing against is face, to feel truly at peace and carefree…and all because of a being, a creature, that only ever existed in stories and fairy tales had given them that chance.<p>

Donatello realized as he drifted off to sleep, that this mighty yet gentle spirit had brought something back to him. Even in this cruel, uncaring, dangerous reality that they lived in, Donatello Hamato, in the space of one night, had been given back a precious gift…

…the ability to believe in the unbelievable.

And he was able to share those unforgettable moments with the people he loved more than anything in the world.

His brothers.


	5. Chapter 5: Missing -Part 1

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I had other fanfictions to update! Anyways, here's the next chapter! SOOOO much editing had to be done** **before this baby ever saw the light of day!**

**I hope you enjoy!**

**I OWN NOTHING. TMNT NOR TOTORO BELONG TO ME.**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Part 5: Missing (part 1)<span>**

It was another normal day in the Lair for the Heroes in the Half Shell, and they had since simmered down a great deal from their little adventure from the night before, returning to their 'normal' selves, with the obvious exception of Michelangelo, who had remained as hyperactive as per usual.

They had just finished their daily training session with Master Splinter (after he had dished out a good old fashioned 'Randori' on their shells for being late that is) and they proceeded to do whatever tasks they pleased to amuse themselves with until their patrol later on that night. Leonardo had decided to stay in the dojo a little while longer to meditate, whilst Donatello had retreated to his lab to work on the retro mutagen, or that newest instalment to the ShellRaiser he was planning on, which left Raphael and Michelangelo to engage in an epic battle to the death…

"Haha! Prepare yourself, for I will defeat you, you pesky blue hedgehog you!" Mikey laughed maliciously as he bashed the buttons on his game controller in a desperate attempt to beat his challenger, who in turn, laughed sarcastically.

"Ha! Sorry Bowser! But..." Raph then performed a deadly and powerful combo on his enemy, which drained the remainder of his life bar and defeated him almost instantly, "…You're too slow!" he mocked, throwing his controller down triumphantly and proceeding to do a victory dance.

Mikey stared blankly at the screen that flashed 'PLAYER 1 WINS and PLAYER 2 LOSES!' before looking up to his celebrating brother and pouting. "No fair!" he complained, "How do you _always_ beat me?"

"Well, Mikey, if you've _gotta_ know…" Raph said before charging at his younger brother and grabbing him roughly, taking him down to the ground and putting him in an arm lock. "I always beat you because…?" he laughed expectantly.

"Owwww! R-Raphael is all wise and powerful!" Mikey recited reluctantly.

Raph laughed and squeezed Mikey tighter. "Aaand?"

"Ugh! A-and he's better than me in every possible way!" Mikey struggled in Raph's grip, but he wasn't going anywhere.

"_Aaaand_?" Raph pressured further.

"And I'm a lowly worm b-beneath his feet who – **_owwww_** – _Who_ _isn't fit to live on the same planet as him because he's so amazing and I'm a dork clod_!" Mikey said in a rush, just wanting to get out of his older brother's death grip around his neck; he could barely breathe!

"**_Aaand?_**"

**_"A-and in the history of the universe there's never been – "_**

"Guys, guys! Come and check this out!" called Donnie's excited voice from his lab, no doubt wanting to show them his newest invention.

Raph rolled his eyes and released Mikey from his torment. He smirked as he watched Mikey dramatically gasp for air on the floor as he walked into the lab.

"I **_LIIIIIIVE_**!" he heard Mikey cry out, and he rolled his eyes.

Geez, what a drama king.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile on the surface, sat on the swings of the nearby park, April O'Neil and her and the turtles' human friend, the infamous black-haired vigilante Casey Jones, watched her laptop screen in amazement at the latest news report that had aired that morning.<p>

Casey leaned in closer to the screen, and his eyes widened in shock as the image of a full grown tree in the background. "What the heck, red?!" he barked.

April shushed him as the report began.

"_This Carlos Chang O'Brien Gambe, reporting live from Central Park. What we are looking at here is some kind of extraordinary and spontaneous appearance of a Camphor tree that was said to have grown at midnight last night. Witnesses say that this tree just started growing out of nowhere at an alarming speed. No one yet knows how it grew to this size so quickly, or whom or what is responsible, even scientists are baffled by this discovery. More news coming at a later date, but for now, this is Carlos Chang O'Brien Gambe, Channel Six News."_

As the report ended, April and Casey sat back dumbfounded. "This...this is kinda weird," Casey said, scratching the back of his head in confusion, "And I've seen a lot of weird stuff in this city, you and the turtles included," he smirked, earning a playful shove from April.

"Yeah, thanks Casey," she mocked back, then her face became serious once again, "but you do have a point. This does seem a little out of the ordinary, even for us. The boys did say something about growing a giant tree last night when they mysteriously reappeared back at the lair, completely unconscious. I just thought they were still tired from fighting all night or just being ridiculous, but after watching that report, I'm beginning to wonder…"

Casey shrugged, bumping his shoulder against hers. "Don't worry about it," he said, "If the turtles have anything to do with this, they'll tell us what's up."

April smiled, nodding absently. She looked at her watch, her eyes widening slightly at the time. "We'd better be heading toward the lair now," she said, quickly gathering her laptop as Casey got up from the swings, walking over to the round-about and picking up his 'weapons' from underneath it, slipping on his skull shaped hockey mask.

"Let's get goin' then, red!" he laughed.

April rolled her eyes as she and the boy made their way down a hidden alleyway towards one of the nearest manhole covers, "Y'know, they're not gonna be back until minutes to ten, right? They said they were gonna go on patrol quickly first and meet us back at the lair, remember?"

"Eh, I like to have a head start," Casey replied, "Plus, I wouldn't mind giving good Raphie boy a little surprise when he gets back!" He cackled wickedly.

April only rolled her eyes again at the boy with a smile. She knew how close Raphael and Casey had gotten over the past few weeks, and it was both annoying and hilarious to watch them together. They acted like a couple of hooligans most of the time.

However, as they walked together, April couldn't help but put a finger to her chin, deep in thought. '_Just what were those guys up to last night?' _she pondered to herself_, 'how the heck could they have done something like that? Unless Donnie had somehow managed to create a 'Super Plant Growing Soil' thing instead of a retro mutagen.' _

She giggled to herself at that final thought; yes, Donatello would probably have done something like that, wouldn't he?

Casey and April walked through the dark streets towards their turtle friends' underground home, but remained unaware as a mysterious white van followed closely behind them.

* * *

><p>"C'mon guys! Keep it up, slow-pokes!" Mikey called mockingly over his shoulder as the four turtles bounded over the rooftops for their quick evening patrol, keeping close to the shadows as they did.<p>

"Shut it, Mikey!" Raph hissed from behind, "You had a head start!"

"Well, to be fair Raph," Donnie began, "Mikey is the fastest of all of us, so it would only make sense that it doesn't really matter if –"

"I will _SMACK_ you outta your shell, Donatello!" Raph snapped at him. Donnie responded with a pout.

"Keep it down you guys!" Leo said in a loud whisper, "We're ninjas, remember? So we…"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it! 'Ninjas are supposed to be quiet, so quiet down!'" Raph mocked his older brother smugly, earning a laugh from both Donnie and Mikey, but a scowl from Leo.

"Very funny, Raph. Very funny," Leo deadpanned.

Raph only shrugged. "I try."

The four turtles finally skidded to a stop on one of the smaller nearby buildings, with Michelangelo in the lead. "Haha! I win!" Mikey cried triumphantly as he did a small victory dance, mocking his brothers. Raph and Donnie rolled their eyes in unison, whilst Leo simply ignored their little exchange and wandered to the edge of the building to keep a look out for any trouble.

"Face it Raph, you might be able to beat me at video games, but you can never beat 'Dr. Speed-instien'!" Mikey laughed, folding his arms across his chest, filled with pride at his accomplishment.

Raph merely gave his signature smirk as he approached the younger turtle. "Oh yeah?" he asked ominously, "Well, can 'Dr. Speed-instien' beat THIS?!" Raphael leapt on Michelangelo by surprise, taking him to the ground as the two began to wrestle playfully on the rooftop, both of them laughing as Raph easily overpowered Mikey.

"Ow! Hey, haha, Raph! No fair! Fight fair! Fight fair!" Mikey cried, though his laughter weakened his struggles a great deal.

"Seek victory, not fairness! And you call yourself a ninja! You're totally pathetic, Mikey!" Raph chortled.

"Am _not_!" Mikey cried, a slightly hurt expression on his features, but Raph only shrugged it off as mock innocence as they continued to roll across the roof like a pair of lion cubs.

Donnie only stood by and watched the two wrestle and laugh together with an amused expression, before Leo called out to them on the edge of the rooftop. "Guys! Be. **_Quiet_**!" he hissed testily.

The two had finally stopped rolling over each other, but Raph was still sat on top of a squirming Mikey as he scowled at his older brother. "Geez, Leo. We're just having a little fun. Right, Mikey?" he probed, giving his youngest brother a squeeze.

Mikey gagged and struggled underneath his older brothers' weight, "Yep…a lot of fun…" he managed to gasp out with an awkward thumbs up.

Leo sighed almost longingly, as if he wanted to join in the fun, but he quickly covered it up with a casual roll of his eyes. "We had plenty of time for that last night. Now we're back on the clock guys," he said firmly, "I swear, the only one being a real ninja here is probably Donnie."

Donnie turned and smiled. "Why, thank you, Leonardo, oh brother mine!" Donnie expressed haughtily with a sly grin and a dramatic bow.

Mikey and Raph both rolled their eyes at his smugness.

Just then, a loud rhythmic ringtone rang through the air. All four brothers shot distressed and wide eyed stares at Donatello, who's had become a dark shade of scarlet. "Umm…oops?" he whimpered.

"_Donatello_!" Leo seethed.

Raph and Mikey held back their laughter as much as they could as Donnie quickly took out his T-phone and looked at the picture on the screen.

"It's April!" he declared excitedly, "she called _ME_! Oh, it's like we're connected…" he said as he let out a dreamy sigh. He ignored his brothers' groaning in disgust as he answered the phone. "Hey April! What's up?...What…? You guys are where…? They _what_?! D-don't worry April! Just stay calm! We'll be right there!"

He hung up as he looked up at the rest of his brothers, who now wore confused and worried expressions. "April and Casey were on their way to the lair, but now their being chased by the Kraang! They spotted them coming down the alley! We've gotta do something!" Donnie stammered, clearly very panicked.

The others shared anxious glances as Mikey and Raph finally stood up, but Leo was the first to recover as he approached Donnie and placed firm hands on both his shoulders. "Donnie. Calm down. Panicking won't make things any better. Did April say where they were?" he asked, in a tone that was both commanding and reassuring.

Donnie took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He saw the slight fear in Leo's eyes, but he was able to keep a calm demeanor despite that. Donnie found confidence in his older brother. He always had a plan and stayed calm even under the most difficult of situations.

Donnie had always admired him for that.

Determination taking over fear, Donnie nodded once and told Leo the location, and with that, the four turtle brothers leapt off the building, racing over the rooftops in search for their human friends.

* * *

><p>April and Casey hid behind a large trash can as they tried to keep their heavy breathing even and quiet. They had been running from laser fire for the better part of an hour as the Kraang pursued them relentlessly. Casey had taken down at least three of them, but eventually back up had arrived, and they had to make a very hasty retreat.<p>

April mentally slapped herself in the face as she narrowed her eyes. How could she not notice that they were being followed? The street was completely empty, and the van was moving painfully slow for crying out loud! And with her new found mental abilities, she should have been able to sense the danger.

Maybe she really did need those extra training sessions with Master Splinter after all. She made a mental note to ask him about that later, but right now, she had to focus on getting herself and Casey out of the alley without being shot at.

She knew the boys were on their way and would be there to help them soon, but she and Casey couldn't just sit around and wait for the Kraang to get their robotic hands on them. She was a kunoichi for goodness sakes!

Well, a kunoichi in training, but she could still fight!

She may be weaker than her turtle brothers, but she was by no means a simple damsel in distress! And Casey Jones, despite being slightly inexperienced, was still a very decent fighter. And together, they made a pretty good team.

The two humans shared a look, and after seemingly reading each other's thoughts in that single look, they both nodded firmly. "Let's do this!" Casey said, taking out his hockey stick and spinning it for emphasis, earning a grin from April.

The two silently waited as a Kraang droid in its human disguise approached the trash can they hid behind. As it came closer, April suddenly jumped out from her hiding place and managed to whack it hard over its metal head from with a discarded metal pipe she had found lying beside her.

Before it could regain its bearings, Casey leapt out with a loud "SUPRISE KRAANG SUCKA!" and hit it several times over the head with his stick before flipping it into the trash can, laughing as April slammed the lid shut over it.

They heard the alien inside scream and screech for freedom, and the two humans did a small celebratory dance on the spot before making a run for it out of the alleyway, glancing behind periodically for any sign of any more Kraang droids on their tail.

"Okay, so far so good," April huffed as they ran.

"Yeah!" Casey chuckled, "we didn't need the guys after all – **_OOF_**!"

Casey suddenly rammed hard into something solid, causing him to fall backwards and landing painfully onto his rear-end. He looked up, rubbing his sore head, and they both froze. A Kraang was staring down at his helpless form with its merciless robotic eyes.

"…okay, I take that back…" Casey gulped.

He quickly shuffled back onto his feet, facing the Kraang droid as he stood protectively in front of April, his hockey stick at the ready. "Okay, slime bot," he growled, "Eat _THIS_!"

He charged the droid, but before he could react, the droid had whipped out its gun and fired, the laser blast hitting his shoulder and sending him flying with a strangled cry of pain.

"_Casey_!" April cried, running over to the boy sprawled out on the ground, his shoulder bleeding from the burning wound.

She ground her teeth together as she snapped her head at the Kraang droid, glaring at it as it came closer, looming over the two of them. In a sharp, angry movement, she whipped out her Tessen and prepared to attack, but to no avail as it reached down and grabbed her arm hard and lifted her off the ground with ease, her feet dangling helplessly above the ground as her Tessen dropped with a clatter to the floor.

She struggled furiously in the droids grip, kicking and punching at it with everything she had, but it didn't release her. "_Rrrg_! Let me go, you heap of Kraang crud!" she screeched.

"The one known as the one Kraang is seeking known as April O'Neil has been acquired by Kraang. Kraang will take the one known as April O'Neil to Kraang," said the emotionless voice of the Kraang robot.

"Not today, Kraang!"

Before she could blink, a large green figure whizzed by the droid holding April captive, which was suddenly sliced in two, and then fell lifelessly to the ground. April fell unceremoniously onto her rear end as the alien from within the robot body squealed and skittered away in a mad panic. Gathering herself together, April breathlessly looked up to her saviour, and immediately smiled in relief.

Leonardo.

"You called?" he asked with a joking smile as he extended a large green hand towards her, which she gladly accepted as he helped her on her feet.

"Took you guys long enough," she replied with a smirk.

Leo chuckled, "Well, you're actually kind of hard to find. Looks like you're getting better at the ninja thing, April," he said, and then his eyes set upon the young boy lying on the ground with a bleeding wound.

Before he could move to help him, Raphael was already at his side, helping the boy to his feet as he groggily woke up, groaning in pain and gripping his shoulder. "You alright, man?" Raph asked his injured friend, trying to hide the concern in his voice.

Biting his bottom lip to hold back a cry of pain, Casey nodded, "Yeah...just a scratch...I'm good..." he wheezed, then turned back to his turtle companion, "Let's just take out these slime balls, alright?"

Carefully releasing the taller boy, Raph gave him a grin and a firm nod. Behind them, a battle ensued between the remaining two turtles, Donatello and Michelangelo, with the remainder of the Kraang that had followed April and Casey.

Seriously, how many Kraang were there in that tiny van anyways?!

Leonardo, Raphael and Casey joined the others in the battle, skilfully cutting any Kraang that had dared to get near his brothers or April. After stabbing through another droid, Raphael landed next to April, putting a firm hand on her shoulder. "You might wanna sit this one out, kid. Leave it to the pros!" he cautioned.

"Hey, I can still fight too, you know!" she protested, folding her arms in defiance.

Which was when the Kraang had decided they were going to use lasers again and began firing in all directions, one beam barley missing her face if she had not dodged at the last second.

She looked up to Raph, who raised an eye ridge at her with a smirk. "Okay…maybe I should wait in the alley...just this once," she admitted anxiously.

Raph rubbed her head and laughed a little. "Yeah, you do that."

Raph waited until April was safely hidden in the alleyway, before charging and brutally stabbing at the Kraang droid that had nearly shot her in the face.

They messed with his family, they messed with hell.

"**_GOONGALA_**!" Casey yelled as he batted away any Kraang that came too close. He was doing surprisingly well, despite his injured right shoulder. Lucky, he was left handed, but it didn't hurt any less though.

But he still had to keep going, to fight alongside the turtles and protect April.

And to get revenge for that shot in the shoulder!

The boys were holding their own against the droids quite well, the only difficulty being dodging the relentless laser fire. And as they bound and hacked their way through the Kraang with ease, Leo turned around briefly as he saw that Raph, Casey and Mikey having more fun doing so than was actually necessary, making Leo roll his eyes in exasperation as they all declared an "I Can Beat More Kraang Than You" contest.

Honestly, did they really have any time for this?

Unfortunately, in their race to destroy more droids than the other, the turtles failed to realize that they had let one of them sneak to where April was hidden. And equally unfortunately, neither did April, until it was too late. She desperately tried to fend off the droid, using her fan to attempt to slice off its head, but it had managed to grab her and drag her out her hiding place.

"_UGH_! Let go!" she cried, whipping out her Tessen again as she tried to decapitate the droid. "I'm not. Gonna. Ask. For. Help!" he she growled.

However, the Kraang grasped her fan, and tossed it to the floor with ease.

April blinked once.

"Ummm...Help! Help! Guys!" she cried as the Kraang droid dragged her towards the van, binding her hands and throwing her inside.

Luckily for her however, Mikey had noticed that April had been caught just before they locked the van doors, and after narrowing his eyes dangerously, he raced to her aid.

He quickly whipped out his Kusarigama chain and wrapped it around the offending robot. "**_BOOYAKSHAA_**!" he cried as he dragged the robot away from the van and threw it into Raph, who easily impaled it with his Sais. Mikey climbed into the van and undid the bonds around Aprils' wrists. "You okay?" he asked worriedly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

April rubbed her aching wrists, and looked up to the worried turtle, "I am now. Thank you Mikey", she replied, resting her hand over his large one, a grateful smile spread across her face, to which he returned with a smile of his own and a quick hug.

Just as they were about to leap out of the van to freedom, they were stopped dead in their tracks as three more Kraang entered the van, their tall bodies looming over them forebodingly.

"Uh oh…" Mikey and April whimpered in unison.

Meanwhile back on the battle ground (which was now littered with robotic body parts) Raph and Casey stood proudly in the centre of all the chaos, Raph casually twirling the head of a Kraang on the tip of his Sai, and Casey leaning the elbow of his uninjured arm on his shoulder. "Well, we saved April, and gave a good old fashioned stomping to a bunch of Kraang bots," Raph laughed, sharing a hard fist bump with Casey.

"Yep," Leo agreed confidently, sheathing his Katanas, "Another day, another slice of Pizza, right Donnie?"

"Heheh, right Leo!" Donnie laughed, fist bumping Leo's outstretched fist eagerly.

It was then however, that they noticed something was wrong.

Where was April?

Better yet, where was _Mikey_?

"Mikey? April?" Leo called out, scanning the area for his human sister and turtle brother. Donnie, Casey and Raph followed suit, until Raph heard and engine starting up. He turned his head in the direction of the sound, and his eyes went wide and his blood froze.

They were trapped in the van! The Kraang were driving off with his little brother, and the human they had all come to see as a sister.

"_Mikey_! _April_!" Raph cried as he raced after the van.

Upon realizing what was happening, Leo, Casey and Donnie were quick to follow the red clad turtles' lead. Luckily, the Kraang seemed to have forgotten to close the back doors, so the two could easily jump out of the van and make their escape.

If they could actually catch up to it, that is.

Inside the van, Mikey fought hard against the three Kraang droids that separated him from freedom, but these bots were stubborn! They just wouldn't stay down! No matter how many times he bashed them with his 'Hot Nunchuck Fury', they just got right back up again!

Mikey began to panic. He couldn't let them hurt April, but he couldn't keep fighting like this forever. The Kraang were closing in on them again, and the space was far too small. What could he do now?

"MIKEY!" yelled a voice from outside the van.

Mikey looked over the shoulder of one of the droids to see his brothers and Casey running behind the van, Donnie stretching out his staff towards him.

"Mikey! April! Get out of there!" Donnie cried. They couldn't run for long, not even Casey with his roller blades, and they were all beginning to fall behind.

Suddenly, a plan formed in Mikey's brain. It was stupid, and very dangerous, but he knew it would work, but only if he timed it just right.

Using all the force he had within him, he brutally shoved passed the Kraang droids and took April by the arm. "Sorry about this, April!" he quickly apologized.

Before she could understand what he was saying, Mikey was already tossing April straight out of the van, who screamed as she was flung and slammed into Casey's arms with a thud. The force of the blow caused him to fall backwards, tripping Leo, Donnie and Raph, sending them all rolling along the street before coming to a stop in a pile of limbs.

Groaning and rubbing his head in pain, Raph looked up to see the van driving off into the distance…with Mikey still inside.

"NO! _MIKEY_!" he cried.

They all watched in horror as their baby brother was thrown backwards viciously by a Kraang back into the van as the doors slammed shut. The van drove away, taking the orange clad turtle with them.

Raph stood up and gazed in the direction the van left in despair. He couldn't believe it. The Kraang took his little brother…he couldn't stop them…he couldn't…

Raphael's blood boiled in rage as he growled viciously and threw his Sais down to the floor. "Dammit!" he seethed, "I should have been watching him! I should have HELPED him! But I…I let him…" his voice trailed off.

He felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He turned to see April looking up at him sadly. "It wasn't your fault Raph," she said regrettably, "If I had only known we were being followed before, none of this would have happened. I'm…I'm so sorry you guys…" April felt tears stinging her eyes, but she fought them off for their sakes.

"No, April, he just wanted you to be safe. It was because of us," Leo confessed, looking downwards to avoid the sad gazes of his three remaining brothers. "We could have stopped this…we just weren't fast enough…"

A sad silence hung over the five of them as they looked down in defeat. Casey put a hand on Donnie's shoulder, as a silent act of condolence. Donnie looked back at him, and gave him a small smile, a silent act of acceptance, despite their differences.

They had just lost their youngest brother. They had no idea where they would take him, and no way of tracking them.

Unless...

Donnie suddenly had an idea. "Guys, wait! I know how we can save Mikey!" he cried. The others looked up at Donatello, hope blooming in their eyes as he continued. "I just remembered! I put a tracking device into each of our T-phones, so with any luck, we'll be able to use our own T-phones to track Mikey down!"

"And then we'll bust some bot heads while we're at it!" Raph said with a grin on his face as confidence rose within him. He knew this plan was going to work. He had faith in Donnie.

"Good work, Donnie," Leo said with a nod of approval. He then turned to Raph and said, "Raph, you track Mikey down with your T-phone. Donnie and I will head back to the lair to drop off April and Casey where it's safe, and patch up Casey's shoulder. Call us if you find them, and we'll rendezvous there."

Raph nodded firmly in understanding as he let Donnie set up the tracking system on his phone, and prepared to set off to find his brother. As he picked up the Sais he had thrown down in anger earlier, he heard Leo call him from behind. He looked over his shoulder to face his older brother, whose face was calm, but his eyes full of worry.

"Find him. But be careful…" Leo said.

Raph nodded once more before the turtles split up, Leo, Donnie, Casey and April setting off to the sewers, whilst Raph headed in the direction the tracker told him would lead him to his baby brother.

* * *

><p>It had only been minutes, but to the hot headed Raphael, it seemed like painful hours of searching the streets and alleyways frantically for any sign of his orange masked brother. He thought this was going to be easy, that he would find the van, destroy the droids, save his brother and return to the lair victorious, and then eat pizza with his brothers and his best friends, happy ever after, the end until another day.<p>

That was until the tracker had stopped working.

He should have known the Kraang would have either taken or destroyed Mikey's T-phone when they realized it had a tracking system. So after Raph had informed them of the bad news, the turtles had decided to switch tactics; split up and look for any signs of any kind of Kraang activity. There was bound to be at least one of those labs that were holding Mikey prisoner. But as they continued the search, they continued to come up empty, and their fears grew more and more.

Especially for Raphael.

Raphael loved all of his brothers fiercely, but it was Mikey whom he felt close to most of the time. Anytime he wanted to spar or play a video game or even read a comic, Mikey was always game. Mikey was always ready to hang out with any of them. And whether he liked it or not, he knew Mikey would always be there to have his back, even if he did annoy the living shell out of him…

But that's what little brothers do. And he couldn't love him any other way.

If they were to loose Mikey now…he just couldn't bear it…

The ringing of his T-phone (for what seemed like the millionth time that night) snapped Raph from his thoughts as he quickly answered it. It was Donnie again.

"_Raph, you find anything yet_?" he asked over the line, worry heavily tainting his younger brothers' voice.

Raph sighed heavily, "Nothing. I've checked all the labs we've been to. Nothing's happening."

_"Same here…ugh, the only place we haven't checked yet is TCRI, but –"_

Before Donnie could finish his sentence, a loud thundering boom sounded off in the distance that nearly shook the ground with its immense force, followed by a large, fiery mushroom cloud. Raph looked on at the scene in the distance in shock.

It took him several moments to snap himself out of his trance and to find his voice again. "Donnie…you saw that…right?" he stuttered fearfully into the phone.

"…_yeah_…" Donnie replied shakily.

A fiery explosion.

The sound of Kraang aliens screaming and slithering away from the scene.

It could only mean one thing.

"_MIKEY_!"

Raph hung up the phone and ran as fast as his legs could carry him across the rooftops, his heart pounding fiercely against his chest, but it was not from the adrenaline as he pushed himself to go faster; it was from the pure, untainted terror that somehow, his little brother, if he really was the cause of it, didn't survive the explosion...

No.

He shouldn't be thinking like that. Mikey was Mikey. And Mikey, behind all that goofiness, behind all the naïve innocence and childish pranks, was a brilliant ninja. They all knew he had great potential, but he never believed it himself, no matter how many times Splinter and the others tried to convince him that he –

A thought hit the red clad turtle full force as his eyes widened. He skidded to a stop on the roof to catch his breath, planting his hands on his knees and panting heavily, staring at his feet in realization.

What if Mikey really _didn't_ survive the blast? And the last thing he would remember of his second eldest brother was what he said to him on the roof earlier that night…

_And you call yourself a ninja? You're pathetic, Mikey!_

He and Mikey always called each other names, but then Raph remembered the hurt he saw in his eyes. He had dismissed it as Mikey trying to lead him on to catch him off guard, but now, as he looked back on it, Mikey truly was hurt by Raph's words.

And Raph had just shaken him off like he was nothing...

Shaking his head vigorously, Raph pushed aside that horrible thought and took off again, running faster than before as he pushed his body to keep going, keep moving, brush off the horrible thoughts before they took over him.

Surely Mikey knew he was only playing, right? They played it all the time…

…they played all the time…

In a matter of moments, Raphael finally reached the area where the blast had originated, his face dripping with sweat as he panted in exhaustion. The explosion had indeed come from a white van, or whatever was left of it, due to the fact that it was almost literally torn to pieces, the rubber tires burned to cinders and the glass windows, doors or any other perceptible pieces of metal were strewn about on the road, either melting or little by little burning away in the small flames that remained.

As Raph looked around at the decimated area around him, still panting from exhaustion, his foot came down upon a long metal piece. He looked down and saw that it was a license plate.

The same plate on the van that took Mikey.

"_RAPH_! Over here!" cried a familiar but frantic voice from behind the wreckage, snapping Raph out of his thoughts. He ran around the burning piles of metal and saw his two remaining brothers. Donnie stood in shock over Leo, who was on his knees clutching something tightly in his trembling hands. He looked up as Raph approached, who saw that there were traces of tears that had yet to fall from his eyes as he fought them back.

He held up the thing that he was holding up to Raph. "Here…is this Mikey's?" he asked, his voice cracking.

Raph stared at the object in horror.

It was a long, torn strip of orange fabric.

He looked to Donatello, who had tears streaming down his face, and he shook his head.

He couldn't tell either.

If even Donnie couldn't tell if it was Mikey's or not, then how on earth would Raph be able to…?

Wait a minute.

Raph carefully took the strip from Leo and turned it over and over in his hands. A very large part of him prayed he wouldn't find it, for it would mean that his brother had perished along with the remains of the wretched Kraang vehicle.

_…please, let it not be there…_

Raph let out a shuddering breath and looked up at his brothers who were staring at him anxiously. His eyes filled with rare tears of relief.

"…it's not his."

Leonardo let out a heavy sigh of relief as he hunched over and let the tears fall from his eyes, covering his face with his hands. Donnie fell to his knees, letting out the breath he had been holding with a hand over his rapidly beating heart. Raph followed suit, still holding the piece of fabric in his hands as he sank to his knees, panting heavily.

Raph knew that Mikey had put an attempted Japanese signature of his name on the inside of his mask. There was no trace of smothered ink on the cloth that he held. He had no idea what it was that Leo had found, but at least he knew that it didn't belong to his baby brother.

There was still a chance that he was still alive.

Leo sniffed once and wiped the tears from his eyes. "It's not Mikey's…thank god…I-I was certain that it was his…" he breathed.

"But with that being said…" Donnie mused, wiping his own tears from his eyes "…we definitely know that this was the van the Kraang used to take him. So how did it explode? And where is he now?"

Raph looked up and glanced around him in an attempt to find anything that could have caused the explosion. He eyes fell upon a long metal chain, and upon recognising it, he grinned. "Heh, looks like the Kraang underestimated him," he smirked, "Look over there."

The other turtles followed their brother's line of vision, and their eyes set upon his Kusarigama blade implanted in the engine.

"He must have somehow been able to open the doors again and dent the engine, causing the oil to leak out," Donnie speculated, "but that doesn't really explain the exploding part…"

A tiny spark lit up behind them, and they turned sharply to find the remains of their brothers' T-phone. Instead of being worried though, Donatello suddenly beamed. "I don't believe it! He self-destructed the T-phone, which set off a spark, causing the oil to react and the whole thing going boom! T-that…that's…genius!" he exclaimed, shaking his head incredulously at his brother's methods.

_Way to go, Mikey, _Raph thought, a proud smile tugging at his lips. Beside him, Leo was doing the same.

However, despite the news, the brothers still had no idea where their youngest brother had gone. He may have gotten away, but was he alright? Had he gone back to the lair? No, if he had, then April would have called them already saying so...

"Where could he be?" Leo said, still too shaken up to stand just yet, "We have to find him before sunrise…"

"...or else someone else will," Donnie finished, a horrified expression creasing his features.

Raph looked down at his hands, trying to keep himself calm. This was bad. If Mikey was still out there by the time the sun raised, ninja or not, he would eventually be spotted by someone, or something.

He could only imagine what would happen to him if that happened...

He quickly gazed around him, desperately looking for something, _anything_ that could help them find their brother, but stopped as he suddenly spotted a towering object in the distance, something large enough that it towered over some of the highest sky scrapers of the city.

He could just make out its form in the darkness…

He now knew how to find Mikey.

Without warning, Raphael jumped to his feet and sprinted off in the direction of Central Park. Leo and Donnie turned sharply after their red clad brother.

"Raph!" Leo exclaimed, "Where are you going?!"

"Don't worry! I've got an idea!" he called over his shoulder as he ran.

He knew it was stupid. He knew it had little to no chance of working, and he would probably end up looking like a total nutcase. But if it meant he had a chance to find and save his little brother, it was a chance he was more than willing to take.

With his decision firmly in mind, he raced off to the tree that had been miraculously grown by the four turtles with the help of a gentle being.

Totoro.


End file.
